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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/24475210">A Miraculous Adventure in America</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/tptplayer5701/pseuds/tptplayer5701'>tptplayer5701</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>"Mind Games"-verse [13]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Miraculous Ladybug</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Adventure, Adventure &amp; Romance, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Established Relationship, F/M, Kwami &amp; Miraculous Lore, New Miraculous, New Miraculous Holders, Post-Hawk Moth Defeat, Post-Reveal Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Road Trips, Stolen Miraculouses (Miraculous Ladybug), World Travel</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-05-31</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-06-15</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-18 07:54:29</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>16</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>32,478</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/24475210</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/tptplayer5701/pseuds/tptplayer5701</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>A "Mind Games"-verse "Spring Break" story</p><p>Cat Noir narrowed his eyes at the patch of darkness, dropping into a crouch as it moved. He gripped his staff tightly in both hands, holding it in front of himself in a defensive posture. The patch of darkness separated from the surrounding roof and leapt across the street separating them – a distance farther than he had ever seen anyone jump without a miraculous.</p><p>The mysterious figure bared her teeth at him. “¿Quién es? ¿Qué hace aquí? ¿Dónde encontró una milagrosa?”</p><p>Cat Noir looked at her in confusion. “Who are you?” he asked. “What did you say?”</p><p>“Si tiene una milagrosa en las Americas y no está con nosostros, Usted debe ser enemigo,” the stranger declared. “Y ¡voy a derrotarse!”</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>"Mind Games"-verse [13]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1666807</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>60</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>60</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Chapter 1</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p class="Preference">
  <em>“I can show you the world<br/>
Shining, shimmering, splendid<br/>
Tell me, princess, now when did<br/>
You last let your heart decide?”</em>
</p><p class="Preference">Marinette looked up from where she was seated on her chaise to see a pair of bright green eyes staring down at her through her skylight. Shaking her head and rolling her eyes, she set aside the kimono she was trying to finish, crawled up the ladder to her bed, and let Cat Noir inside. He jumped through the hatch, pulling it shut behind him, and had de-transformed by the time he landed next to her on the bed.</p><p class="Preference">“Is this going to be a thing, Kitty?” she asked, arching an eyebrow at him.</p><p class="Preference">“Which part? Me visiting you?” He smiled at her adoringly. “There’s no way that’s stopping any time soon, Princess.”</p><p class="Preference">Marinette blushed. “You singing ‘A Whole New World’ on my balcony when you visit,” she retorted with a smirk.</p><p class="Preference">“Well, it just seems so fitting,” he replied, shrugging. “Two lovers from different backgrounds who meet in disguise and are granted magical powers by an all-powerful being… His father is a criminal mastermind…”</p><p class="Preference">She stared at him in shock. “Wait, you actually <em>watched</em> the third <em>Aladdin</em> movie???” she giggled.</p><p class="Preference">“I appreciate the dramatic irony of his father turning out to be a ‘king,’ making Aladdin a ‘prince’ all along,” Adrien defended. “What can I say, I identify with Aladdin, falling for a girl way out of my league.”</p><p class="Preference">“Okay, for one, <em>you</em>’re the rich prince in this analogy, so <em>you</em>’re the one who’s way out of <em>my</em> league,” Marinette replied, grinning. “And for two, the Genie is a lot nicer than Plagg!”</p><p class="Preference">Plagg stuck his tongue out at Marinette. “I’ll have you know that I am <em>worlds</em> nicer than any of the good-for-nothing genies out there, Pigtails!” With that he turned his back on her and phased through the bed to find Tikki.</p><p class="Preference">Adrien’s eyes trailed after Plagg, confusion evident in them. He opened his mouth to say something, but seemed to think better of it. He shook his head and turned back to Marinette. “Your family is far richer in what matters than mine is,” he told her, his lips pulling down in a frown.</p><p class="Preference">She smiled and pulled him into a hug, resting her cheek on his shoulder. “You’re part of the family, too,” she assured him. “Considering that my parents have practically adopted you this year, and even more so since that conversation last week. Even if they did insist that we need a chaperone for this trip! But can you at least stop singing that song after tomorrow?”</p><p class="Preference">“I make no <em>purr</em>-omises,” he teased. “I’m just too excited that you’re coming with me!”</p><p class="Preference">“When you showed up on my balcony singing Disney and invited me to ‘see the world’ with you, I didn’t think you were talking about a <em>business trip</em>,” Marinette observed, arching an eyebrow at him.</p><p class="Preference">“I’m just glad your parents agreed to let you come with me,” he replied, wrapping his arms around her. “Remember the last ‘business trip’ I took?”</p><p class="Preference">“That weekend in London? How could I forget? You called every three hours because the supplier was driving you crazy!”</p><p class="Preference">“The only good thing about the whole trip was seeing Felix again,” Adrien agreed. Marinette frowned at him dubiously. Seeing her face, he went on, “I know he didn’t make the best first impression on you–”</p><p class="Preference">“He pretended to be you just to make your friends angry!” Marinette interrupted heatedly. “He deleted the videos we sent you to make you feel better on the anniversary of your mother’s supposed death. He got Alya, Rose, and Juleka Akumatized! He tried to <em>kiss</em> me while pretending to be you, trying to make me think you were some creepy stalker!”</p><p class="Preference">“Good thing you know me too well to fall for that,” he commented, quirking his eyebrows at her. Frowning, he went on, “That was two years ago. Felix is different now. He’s not perfect, but he’s still my cousin.” He smiled. “But I won’t lie: you are a <em>much</em> better traveling companion than him! I’m sorry you won’t get to do as much sightseeing now as you were planning.”</p><p class="Preference">Marinette pushed back to look into his face and saw the disappointment in his eyes. “Why is that?” she asked, confused.</p><p class="Preference">“I got a call from the head of our South American distributor after the press conference,” he told her. “She had watched it live and wanted to know if my ‘girlfriend’ was planning to accompany me on the trip. When I told her that you were, she asked if it would be possible to meet the lead designer for our new flagship brand. So… I guess you are coming to the meetings with me – if that’s alright…?”</p><p class="Preference">“I guess that’s the downside of letting Nadja break the news of our relationship to a global audience!” Marinette commented wryly. Seeing the vulnerability in Adrien’s eyes, she took his hand and brought it up to her cheek. “That’s okay,” she assured him, leaning into his palm and kissing it. “It wouldn’t have been as much fun touring the city without you, anyways. I’d much rather spend time with you, even if it <em>does</em> mean sitting through business meetings.”</p><p class="Preference">Adrien let out a relieved breath and nodded. “It does make this less of a vacation for you, though. And you definitely need a vacation after the last few years!”</p><p class="Preference">“We <em>both</em> do, Kitty,” she replied, squeezing his hand. “This will be a vacation – sort of. And besides, I’m excited to be representing the company with you now. It’s sooner than expected, and it’s not how we planned any of this to happen, but I’m happy to help you with Agreste however I can.”</p><p class="Preference">“Thanks, Princess,” he said, holding her close. “But the next time I take you on a trip, it’s going to be an <em>actual</em> vacation, and not an Agreste Fashion business trip! I <em>purr</em>-omise!”</p><p class="Preference">Marinette was silent for a moment, soaking in Adrien’s warmth and affection. “Are you sure we should be leaving Paris right now?” she finally asked. “I know we’ve been planning the trip for months, but the timing just feels wrong now. What if Lynchpin tries something more while we are away?”</p><p class="Preference">Adrien hummed. “It sounds like Lynchpin did try something during the press conference today,” he admitted. “It’s a good thing Kim was there to sort it out.”</p><p class="Preference">“Yeah,” Marinette agreed. “From what he said, the others stepped up big time, especially Nathaniel and Alix.”</p><p class="Preference">“Lynchpin did suffer a pretty big loss today,” Adrien reminded her. “So maybe he won’t want to try anything else for a while so he can recover?”</p><p class="Preference">“Maybe…” Marinette frowned.</p><p class="Preference">“Do you trust Alya and Nino and Chloe?” Adrien asked her.</p><p class="Preference">“Of course.”</p><p class="Preference">“Then trust our friends to keep the city intact while we’re gone,” he advised her. “Hawk Moth and Mayura are gone, their miraculous are safe, so no Akumas or Amoks to purify. Alya has a few leads on Lynchpin that she can track down, and if we really are his targets, then our being gone might be enough for him to come out of hiding and make a mistake that Alya can use. And besides, if something goes too badly wrong, Max can always portal us home to deal with it.”</p><p class="Preference">“I know.” Marinette sighed and burrowed further into his side. “I still can’t get used to having a team to back us up,” she admitted. “Last year it was really just the two of us, with a little help when we absolutely needed it.”</p><p class="Preference">“You and me against the world, right Bugaboo?” He planted a kiss on her forehead.</p><p class="Preference">“That’s what it always comes down to, Kitty.” She smiled. “But I’m glad we have friends.”</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>The reference to Kim is for "Monkey Games," which I will start publishing tomorrow alongside this one. You don't need to read one before the other.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Chapter 2</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I’ve never actually flown business class on one of these planes, but you can find literally anything on the Internet, including the information that there is a nonstop flight from Paris to Lima, Peru, and what kind of plane they use. And even a virtual tour of that plane. I swear the first paragraph isn’t an advertisement for Boeing!</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Adrien stretched out and leaned his seat back as the plane reached cruising altitude. For as much as he would have preferred not to have a barrier dividing him and Marinette on the plane, he certainly appreciated the legroom of these business class seats, especially considering how long the nonstop flight to Peru was going to be. He slid the aisle screen out to give him some privacy from the flight attendants and other passengers – Plagg appeared out of his carry-on bag at that and curled up with a wheel of Camembert on the still-closed tray table, hidden from view by the seat in front of them. Adrien shook his head. “You’re lucky they didn’t confiscate that at security!”</p><p>“I would have turned ‘Charles de Gaulle’ into ‘Charlie’s been Mauled’ if they tried!” Plagg retorted, shoving the entire wheel in his mouth defiantly.</p><p>“You realize Tikki would kill us <em>both</em> if you did that, right?” Adrien asked, smiling. Even if a business trip was <em>not</em> the way he wanted to show his Princess the world, he felt good about this trip. He was with her. They didn’t have parents or press or anyone except Mme Legrand to interrupt them. And, aside from the meetings, they had all the time in the world to explore. He hadn’t realized just how structured and regimented his life had become since taking over the fashion house. Not until this past month, when he was once again stuck in the office doing managerial work on a daily basis after firing their office manager. He finally realized that his entire life had become scripted. But with his lawyer, M. Renoir, and executive secretary, Mme Batteaux, running the business on a day-to-day basis for the next week, Adrien felt freer than he had in weeks. He reached into his pocket for his phone. Before starting his latest anime obsession, however, he decided to lower the privacy screen between his and Marinette’s seats.</p><p>Tikki was in the middle of tasting an airline cookie, a dubious expression on her face. Marinette had her earbuds in, listening to Nino’s latest mix and humming along quietly. Her sketchpad was already out and she was drawing furiously.</p><p>He watched in awe as a purse came to life on the page. “I knew she was talented,” Adrien whispered, “but I could swear Mme Legrand only asked for that design in the terminal this morning!”</p><p>Plagg snorted and started making fake gagging sounds.</p><p>“I heard you saying goodbye to your cheese stash before we left,” Adrien warned him, smirking.</p><p>Plagg sputtered indignantly, but Adrien ignored him to focus on Marinette. He watched her put the finishing touches on the design before reaching over, pulling the earbud closest to him out of her ear, and whispering, “That’s im-<em>purr</em>-essive!”</p><p>Marinette squeaked, dropped her sketchpad to the floor, and threw her pencil at Adrien’s face. Adrien caught the flying pencil with one hand as it sailed past his ear, and caught her flailing arm with his other hand centimeters from striking him in the head.</p><p>“You mangy cat!” she growled, glaring at him. “You could’ve ruined that design!”</p><p>“Sorry, <em>Purr</em>-incess,” he replied, failing to hide his smirk. “I would never want to do that; it would be a <em>cat</em>astrophe! <em>Fur</em>-get I said anything!”</p><p>She rolled her eyes. “And to think I actually <em>wanted</em> to spend thirteen hours stuck in an enclosed space with you!”</p><p>“<em>Meow</em>-ch,” Adrien said, clutching his chest in mock pain. “You <em>woo</em>-nd me. I’m <em>feline</em> so underappreciated!”</p><p>Marinette narrowed her eyes at him and tried to hide the smile that turned up the corners of her mouth. “Alright, Kitty,” she sighed, rolling her eyes at him affectionately. She rested her elbows on the divider and her chin on her folded hands, and fixed her bluebell eyes on him. “Clearly you are feeling starved for attention.  And fortunately for you I just finished my project. So let’s talk for a while.”</p><p>“I don’t know about ‘starved for attention,’” Adrien replied, starting to feel heat rising in his cheeks under her intense gaze. “But I could never get enough of talking to my incredible girlfriend, Milady. What should we talk about?”</p><p>Marinette seemed to think for a moment. “I’ve been thinking about the future a lot,” she confessed. “Growing up I always wanted to be an internationally-known fashion designer, to have my own brand, all of it. And then you practically <em>gave</em> me everything I wanted at Agreste. Mme Legrand insists that I’ve earned every responsibility she’s given me there, but all the same… it feels like I haven’t <em>really</em> earned it because it’s <em>your</em> company.” She frowned for a moment before breaking into a wide smile. “But I wouldn’t trade any of it, not if it means I’m doing it with you.”</p><p>Adrien nodded. “I’m sorry it’s not happening the way you wanted it to,” he told her. “But I’m so glad that I have you with me in this. I’ve thought a few times that maybe it would actually have been <em>easier</em> for you if we had closed Agreste Fashion and you could’ve started a new company, without all of Hawk Moth’s baggage.”</p><p>Marinette shook her head and reached up to cup his cheek with one of her hands. Sadly she told him, “That baggage would have followed us, even without the Agreste name, if you were with me. And there’s no way I would leave you behind to go on with my life, Kitty. I need you.”</p><p>Adrien smiled and kissed her palm. “Thanks. It goes without saying, but I need you, too.” He thought for a minute. “Have you given any more thought to university? We have a year, but…”</p><p>Marinette frowned. “I’m still not sure yet,” she answered. “It’s always been my plan to go to fashion school, but Mme Legrand thinks university won’t benefit me as much now as it would have a year ago.” Adrien gave her a confused look. “The two benefits of university for a fashion designer are knowledge and networking,” Marinette elaborated. “Or at least that’s how she explained it to me. She thinks there’s very little I can learn at university that I won’t learn by working at Agreste fulltime with her. And I’ll do more networking as a professional designer at Agreste than I would as a university student. <em>And</em> I already have a job in the field, anyways.”</p><p>Marinette still looked troubled. Adrien put his hand over hers. “You still want a degree, don’t you?” he asked.</p><p>She nodded. “Mme Legrand said she knows a few professors at ENSAD who might let me earn degree credit through my Agreste internship and then take a few night classes to finish it up. So I might do that. But what about you, M. CEO? Business school?”</p><p>Adrien laughed derisively. “I don’t know,” he admitted. “That was my <em>father</em>’s plan. Now? I don’t know. I’ve thought about studying science. I’ve thought about studying music. M. Renoir thinks I should take some business classes so I know how to run this business for the long run, but I don’t know if running Agreste Fashion fulltime is really what I want to <em>do</em> with my life in the long run. I’m fine with it now, but I got more of a thrill from helping Max produce and sell ‘Super Akuma Battle Melee’ than I’ve ever gotten from sitting in that big fancy office reading market analyses.”</p><p>“I’m glad you did that with him,” Marinette told him, smiling. “Max was so excited about the chance to publish his game!”</p><p>“I’m sorry I didn’t talk to you first about it,” Adrien apologized, grimacing. “That was a pretty sizeable investment.”</p><p>“You don’t need my permission,” Marinette replied, fixing him with a serious look. “First off, it’s <em>your</em> money.” Adrien mentally supplied <em>for now</em>. “Second, you already made back your investment, so I think it worked out. And besides, I would have told you to go for broke on it, anyways!”</p><p>“You’re right,” Adrien answered, grinning. “That’s one of the reasons I think I could step away from Agreste.”</p><p>“Thinking you don’t want to be an international fashion mogul?” Marinette arched an eyebrow at him.</p><p>“If you could dump every possible descriptor for ‘Gabriel Agreste’ into a pile, I would drop a match on all of them in a heartbeat. I don’t want to be <em>anything</em> like him!” he growled before smiling wistfully. “I’d rather invest in our friends. Help Max publish his next game since ‘Super Akuma Battle’ is selling so well. Help Nino get all the equipment he needs to make it as a DJ. Help Nathaniel and Marc publish their comic books. That kind of thing.</p><p>“Don’t get me wrong: I’m content to keep being the Agreste in charge of the ‘Agreste Fashion House’ for the time being – it is my name on the side of the building. But in a couple years, maybe we just say it’s <em>your</em> name on the side of the building and I just handle more of the background business stuff while you do the day-to-day stuff.”</p><p>Marinette’s eyes widened. “You want it to be <em>my</em> name on the building? What do you mean by that?”</p><p>He shrugged. “Well, there should be an Agreste running Agreste Fashion, right? But why does it have to be me? Why can’t it be you?” he asked her.</p><p>Marinette’s jaw dropped. “Wait. Are… are you saying what I think you’re saying?”</p><p>Adrien paused for a moment in confusion and played back the last few minutes of their conversation. His eyes widened in surprise and he felt his cheeks flush brilliant red. “Um… I… yes, I guess I am,” he chuckled, running a hand through his hair. He looked her in the eyes seriously and asked, “Marinette, Milady, will you marry me?”</p><p>Marinette was silent for a moment, staring at him with her eyes wide. Adrien’s heart thumped loudly in his chest as he waited for her to respond. His heart sank as she didn’t answer. He was just about to try to pass it off as a joke when Marinette let out a muffled sound and launched herself over the divider and into his lap, throwing her arms around his neck and squeezing so tightly he thought he would black out. Then he thought he <em>had</em> blacked out, as she pulled him down into a kiss so all-consuming his brain shorted out.</p><p>“I take it the answer’s ‘yes’?” he asked breathlessly when she finally broke the kiss and they came up for air.</p><p>“Yes,” she whispered, looking deeply into his eyes, tears starting to form in the corners of her own eyes. “The answer’s most definitely ‘yes,’ my Prince.”</p><p>“I love you, Princess,” he whispered, resting his forehead against hers.</p><p>“I love you, too.” She kissed him again and he lost himself in her scent. “So was this just a spur-of-the-moment proposal?” she asked eventually, resting her head on his shoulder as he wrapped his arms around her.</p><p>“Yes and no,” he admitted, giving a meaningful glance toward the high-pitched squealing noise coming from the general direction of his closed tray table. Tikki was giggling excitedly and bouncing up and down in midair while strangling Plagg with a look of pure glee on her face. Plagg gently extracted himself from her embrace and slipped down into Adrien’s carry-on bag. “Asking you on the plane before we even left <em>Europe</em> was most definitely not the plan. But I was planning to do it on this trip. I was planning to take you out to dinner one of the nights we were in Lima, then go for a run around the city and see the sights before proposing at the Parque del Amor.”</p><p>Plagg flew over to them with a small jewelry box, which Adrien took surreptitiously. “I was going to get down on one knee,” he whispered, flipping the box open with one hand. “Then I was going to give you this” he held up the jewelry box “and ask you.”</p><p>Marinette gasped and covered her mouth with one hand. Inside the jewelry box was a white-gold engagement ring with a single diamond set between a small ruby and onyx. Marinette squeezed his neck tighter and kissed him again. “You didn’t need to do that,” she murmured, cheeks turning a delicate pink.</p><p>“Have I ever let that stop me?” he asked, sliding the ring onto her finger.</p><p>She admired the ring for a moment before turning to look at him. “Do my parents know?” she asked, giving him a worried look.</p><p>“Of course,” he assured her. “I asked your Papa weeks ago. I even talked to Alya and Nino and Chloe last week. They were all thrilled; Chloe and Alya both assured me that if I broke your heart, they would break my teeth!”</p><p>She giggled. “So why now? We’re not even old enough to marry yet.”</p><p>“Why wait?” Adrien shrugged. He sighed. “This has actually been on my mind since October,” he confessed. “Remember when Old Chloe told us that future-me didn’t propose until after an alien invasion? I don’t know why he waited so long. But he did. And future-us were only married two years before she was killed. We don’t know if that will be our future, but I don’t want to miss out on a single second of my future with you.”</p><p>Marinette blushed and hugged him tightly. “I don’t want to miss out on our future together, either,” she whispered.</p><hr/><p>Several hours later, after the pilot had announced the beginning of their descent toward Lima, Adrien woke up to the sound of someone knocking on the privacy screen between his seat and the aisle. Beside him, Marinette stirred under the blanket he’d draped over them both somewhere over the Atlantic, opening her eyes to blink blearily. Mme Legrand was looking at them over the screen, one eyebrow raised.</p><p>“I’m glad to see you both enjoyed yourselves,” she told them, “but just remember your future in-laws’ instructions to me, Adrien. I hope the two of you did not join the ‘Mile High Club’ while I was asleep!”</p><p>Adrien chuckled nervously as he slid the screen back. “I promise you nothing like that happened, ma’am,” he assured her.</p><p>Marinette held out her left hand and smiled happily.</p><p>Mme Legrand stepped inside the cubicle, took Marinette’s hand, and inspected the ring. She was silent for a moment before breaking out into a wide smile and letting out an uncharacteristic squeal of delight. “Oh, I’m so happy for you two! Congratulations!” she gushed, clapping her hands together and beaming at them. She scoffed at Adrien, “I knew you couldn’t keep that question to yourself for long, kiddo!” She turned back to Marinette, fighting back a smile. “This still doesn’t let you off the hook for finishing up that purse design, dear!”</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. Chapter 3</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Instead of reiterating this in every chapter, I’m just saying it once here: Spanish dialogue will not be translated unless the POV character understands it – there are at least a few places where the language barrier is important. For now, all English-language dialogue should be understood as French unless otherwise noted.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p class="Preference">The next morning, Marinette woke up sprawled out in an enormous king-size bed in one room of their two-bedroom suite – Adrien had insisted on taking the hide-a-bed couch in the living room, leaving the bedrooms to Marinette and Mme Legrand. She pulled a baggy sweatshirt on over her pajamas, ran a hand through her hair, and stumbled out of her bedroom into the living room, expecting to find Adrien still asleep. She was surprised, however, to find the couch put back together and Adrien nowhere to be found.</p><p class="Preference">The mystery of his disappearance cleared up almost immediately, however, as the door clicked once and Adrien entered, balancing a tray with a carafe of coffee and an assortment of breakfast dishes in one hand. He grabbed something off the plate and put it on the table. Plagg, who was smaller than the object, slipped out of Adrien’s pocket, sat down next to it, and gave it a dubious look before breaking off a piece and sticking it in his mouth. The Kwami chewed slowly and swallowed. Then his eyes lit up and he burrowed straight through it, eating the filling in a single pass.</p><p class="Preference">“Okay, this tamale is now my new favorite breakfast!” Plagg commented as he emerged from the other side of it. He leaned against the outer breading and started picking filling out of his fur.</p><p class="Preference">“It’s a good thing they had some with just cheese,” Adrien observed, biting into his own tamale.</p><p class="Preference">“Did you bring anything for the rest of us, Kitty?” Marinette asked, folding her arms across her chest and arching an eyebrow.</p><p class="Preference">“Of course, Princess!” He grinned and poured her a cup of coffee. “It’s even Peruvian-grown! I wasn’t sure what either of you would want to eat so I got a variety. For Tikki I got picarones: sweet potato donuts!”</p><p class="Preference">Marinette took a sip of the coffee and smiled. “Thanks, my Prince.” She grinned cheekily. “What’s the plan today?”</p><p class="Preference">“Our first meeting isn’t until after lunch, so we have the morning to deal with jetlag,” he told her. “Or we can do some sightseeing.”</p><p class="Preference">Marinette put a finger to her chin and hummed. “I don’t know if the coffee has me fully awake yet,” she began, giving him a sly look. “Maybe we need to cuddle on the couch while we eat breakfast. Then we can see what the rest of the morning looks like.”</p><p class="Preference">“Sounds like a plan, Milady,” he whispered, wrapping her in his arms and pulling her down onto the couch.</p><hr/><p>“I am so excited to meet you, Srta. Dupain-Cheng!” the distributor gushed in English, clasping her hand and shaking it enthusiastically.</p><p class="Preference">“I am happy it worked out, Sra. Lopez,” Marinette responded, also in English, smiling brightly. “I was already looking forward to this trip; getting more of an inside look at the fashion industry makes it even better!”</p><p class="Preference">“Thank you for adjusting your schedule for this trip on such short notice.” Sra. Lopez gestured for them to take seats around the conference table. “I watched your press conference the other day and was most impressed with everything Sr. Adrien said about you,” she continued. “When Sr. Agreste was arrested… I confess, I was concerned about the benefits of continuing to sell Agreste’s merchandise! Knowing that Sr. Adrien has had a plan for the future since the beginning? That he has a new brand to supplant the old disgraced ‘Gabriel’ line? I am excited to see where you are going in the future!”</p><p class="Preference">“I hope you will not be disappointed, Señora.” Marinette smiled and forced herself to stop fidgeting with her engagement ring under the table. She was here to represent Adrien’s company and her newly-launched brand. She couldn’t afford to appear as anything less than her confident, Ladybug self!</p><p class="Preference">“I hope so, also, my dear. So,” Sra. Lopez began, leaning forward eagerly, “now that you are responsible for the top brand of the House of Fashion of Agreste, what <em>are</em> your plans for the future?”</p><p class="Preference">Marinette’s smile froze in place. Only for an instant, however; she calmly extracted her tablet and sketchpad. “As I am sure you realized after the press conference, this year’s summer line, the ‘Flowers of Summer,’ is not exclusively ‘Marinette’ brand,” she replied. She handed over the tablet. “About a third is, and there is some overlap between ‘Marinette’ and non-‘Marinette’ pieces. This fall we will have a full ‘Marinette’ line, and you can see some of the upcoming designs here.”</p><p class="Preference">Sra. Lopez flipped through the images quickly, nodding and murmuring appreciatively as she examined the designs. “Ah, these are all quite exceptional!” she commented at last. “A testament both to your skill and, I think, that of your mentor?” She aimed the last comment at Mme Legrand.</p><p class="Preference">Legrand smiled and shook her head gently. “I have given Marinette guidance and advice,” she agreed, “but the designs are primarily her own innate skill!”</p><p class="Preference">Marinette gestured for the tablet and switched to a new folder before handing it back. “You can see here the new line of ‘Heroes of Paris’-themed shirts, including all of the newest heroes,” she said. “The first line sold very well, and we expect these to sell even better.”</p><p class="Preference">Sra. Lopez gave her a patronizing smile. “I am sure they will – in Paris,” she informed them. “South America? The Americas have their own heroes; we sold very few of your Heroes of Paris merchandise, apart from your Ladybug-inspired dress.”</p><p class="Preference">Marinette hid her surprise. She knew about the American heroes like Majestia and Knightowl, of course – Alya was a huge fan of them – but didn’t think they operated in South America. What she said was, “I would love to speak with the American heroes about designing clothing inspired by them! And I am sure our charity could find ways to help victims here.”</p><p class="Preference">Sra. Lopez nodded approvingly before returning the tablet. “This does raise a concern, however,” she told them, fixing Marinette with a penetrating stare. “All the designs I have seen so far are, I think, of a European style or designed for a European market. Now,” she added quickly, “do not hear me wrong: Paris does still have a strong place in fashion! <em>Pero</em>… I am… concerned that European-style clothing will not sell as well in the market of South America.” She laughed sardonically. “Sr. Agreste ignored my concern for nearly two decades and insisted that the world wear French. Will the new management say the same?”</p><p class="Preference">Mme Legrand snorted. “Sr. Agreste, for all his design ability, had the interpersonal skills of a two-year-old! Marinette has done nothing <em>but</em> listen to advice and push herself to branch out.”</p><p class="Preference">Marinette shifted files on her tablet and handed it back. “Here you can see a few pieces inspired by Eastern culture. For example, I designed a complementary kimono and cheongsam for a friend and I to wear to a formal event next month.”</p><p class="Preference">Sra. Lopez nodded. “I imagine those could both sell very well in the Asian market. Have you considered designing anything exclusively for the Latin American market?”</p><p class="Preference">Marinette looked over at Adrien and could see concern in his eyes, though he hid it well beneath a cool, confident exterior. Their current lineup didn’t include anything that really fit a <em>Latin American</em> aesthetic, and they needed to keep Sra. Lopez happy if Agreste was going to keep its foothold in South America. She felt herself starting to hyperventilate, only for Tikki to pinch her thigh. Marinette quirked an eyebrow at Adrien, and he gave her an encouraging smile back.</p><p class="Preference">Before Marinette could say anything, Mme Legrand coughed. “Lorena, we both know how Gabriel would have responded every time you asked him about this,” she interjected, raising an eyebrow at her. When the other woman nodded ruefully, she continued, “He had a bit of a diva complex, you know; I have tried for the better part of a year to stamp that out in what remains of our design team! However, the one designer I never have that problem with is Marinette. I am sure we can come up with something satisfactory.”</p><p class="Preference">Marinette gave Mme Legrand a grateful smile. Turning to Sra. Lopez, she flipped through her sketchbook to find one of her earlier designs. “Normally, I am inspired by what I see and know,” she explained. She held out the design in question. “This is my first time here, so I have not had any opportunities to experience Latin American culture; I hope to correct that while we are here! However, I do have this blouse I designed several years ago, after a family trip to Catalan. Spain is certainly not Latin America, but much of Latin American culture takes inspiration from Spain.”</p><p class="Preference">Sra. Lopez accepted the sketchbook and examined the design quietly. Marinette bit her lower lip as she watched the woman’s eyes move up and down the paper. Sra. Lopez looked up at her and nodded. “I think this might sell decently in Latin America,” she finally told her. “With some modifications, of course.”</p><p class="Preference">“Of course,” Marinette agreed. “It is an older design. I do need to adjust the neckline and colors a little.”</p><p class="Preference">Adrien’s phone buzzed. “If Marinette sends the updated design to them this evening, our manufacturer will have a test run ready to ship out the end of next week,” he announced.</p><p class="Preference">“In the meantime, I hope to have more of an opportunity to see your city and perhaps take a walk along the oceanfront and see if that inspires anything else with a true Latin American flair!” Marinette added.</p><p class="Preference">“That would be wonderful!” Sra. Lopez exclaimed, clapping her hands. She stood up to usher them out of the conference room, shaking each of their hands as they left. “I must say, you have both impressed me so far. I look forward to continuing to work with you. We can work out more of the details tomorrow.”</p><hr/><p>“You were amazing, Mar!” Adrien told her, squeezing her waist gently as the three of them left the restaurant after dinner a few hours later. “Cool, calm, in control…”</p><p class="Preference">“That’s what you thought?” Marinette asked, raising an eyebrow at him even as she leaned into his embrace. “I was terrified,” she confessed. “Mme Lopez didn’t seem happy with <em>anything</em> today.”</p><p class="Preference">“It wasn’t all because of you, dear,” Legrand explained, giving her an encouraging smile. “Lorena is very strong-willed – I’m still amazed she and Gabriel never came to blows, to be honest! No, most of the concerns she expressed today were no more than she expressed to Gabriel repeatedly over the last decade. If I know her at all, it was her own little test.” Marinette gave her a surprised look, and she went on, “She wanted to know if you would be another Gabriel, or someone better than Gabriel.”</p><p class="Preference">“Don’t set the bar <em>too</em> high!” Adrien interjected wryly.</p><p class="Preference">Marinette punched him halfheartedly in the side, even as she giggled.</p><p class="Preference">“Well,” Legrand said, stretching her arms, “I’m still somewhere between Paris time and Lima time, so I’m going to return to the suite and go to bed early. You two kids don’t make <em>too</em> much noise tonight… Oh, and Adrien?” She raised an eyebrow at him. “Remember, if you do anything inappropriate, I know where you sleep. And I knit.”</p><p class="Preference">Adrien snorted. “Yes, ma’am.”</p><p class="Preference">After Mme Legrand had left them to walk back to the hotel, Marinette steered them down a side street lined with trees. She looked around, admiring the colors of the flowers planted around the bases of the trees. A bird called, and she caught a glimpse of an orange-and-black streak flitting between the branches further down the street.</p><p class="Preference">“Feeling inspired yet, Bugaboo?” Adrien asked. She turned to find him staring at her face, enraptured.</p><p class="Preference">“I’ve got a few ideas,” she replied, smiling at him.</p><p class="Preference">They continued in silence for a few minutes before Adrien commented, “I’m glad you were there today. You seemed so confident the whole time. Me, I felt out of my depth pretty much from the beginning. I don’t think I could have handled that meeting nearly as well on my own.”</p><p class="Preference">“I felt something off with you,” she observed, resting her head on his shoulder. “Do you need to talk about it?”</p><p class="Preference">She could sense his frown. “I guess… I feel a little cooped up,” he admitted. “We were in a plane all day yesterday. We were in that meeting most of today. It’s our Spring Break, we’re on a different continent, and we’re not doing anything <em>exciting</em>.”</p><p class="Preference">Marinette didn’t say anything, just put an arm around his back and leaned into his side. She directed their path down another street.</p><p class="Preference">“That’s not even really it,” Adrien said quietly. “I guess… I thought that being on my own – no overly-restrictive father, no Hawk Moth – I would be <em>free</em> from the ridiculous demands on my time. I would be free to just be a teenager.” He shrugged. “Instead, I have more responsibilities and burdens today than I ever did – all of them self-imposed.”</p><p class="Preference">Marinette looked down at her finger. “Is this one of those responsibilities?” she asked softly.</p><p class="Preference">Adrien squeezed her gently. “It’s a <em>responsibility</em>,” he agreed, “but don’t think for a minute that you’re a burden.”</p><p class="Preference">Marinette gave him a peck on the cheek. “I’m sorry you’re so confined.”</p><p class="Preference">“It’s fine.” He chuckled. “Maybe what I need is to go for a run around the city; that always helped when my <em>father</em> was the one locking me up! Care to join me?”</p><p class="Preference">Marinette shook her head. “I’d love to, but I do have an idea now for a Latin American dress, so I should start working on it tonight before I lose it. Have fun!”</p><p class="Preference">“You too, Princess!”</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0004"><h2>4. Chapter 4</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p class="Preference">Feeling the wind rushing through his hair as he leapt from rooftop to rooftop, dodging satellite dishes and chimneys, Cat Noir felt the stress of the day’s meetings finally leeching off. He wasn’t lying to Marinette on the plane when he told her he would like to step back from running Agreste in a few years and hand the day-to-day operations over to her. He’d been telling the truth when he said he felt burdened and confined. Since his father’s arrest, he had eliminated all the excess extracurricular activities and engagements that <em>he</em> didn’t want to continue. He had continued fencing because it served as stress relief – and it translated reasonably well to fighting with his staff. He had continued Chinese lessons because they had already proven useful in understanding the complicated code in which the Guardians had written the Book of the Miraculous. Although he had stopped taking such regular piano lessons, he had continued to play because it was relaxing and reminded him of his mother. He had dropped his modeling engagements from multiple times a week down to less than once in a given month. Every other extracurricular – private tutors and more – was pretty much gone, leaving more time for his friends.</p><p class="Preference">So why was he still so stressed?</p><p class="Preference">Hawk Moth was rotting in jail – Adrien still had yet to visit the man – as was Mayura. His relationship with Marinette was solid – he was still on cloud nine whenever he caught sight of the engagement ring on her finger. And the Heroes of Paris? The Heroes were running like a well-oiled machine this year, especially since the others – especially Max, Alya, Nino, and Chloe – were stepping up to help Marinette and himself. They had been targeted by this conspiracy that Alya was investigating, but Alya was confident that she could track this “Lynchpin” down and resolve his criminal enterprises – maybe even by the time they got home. Even <em>that</em> wasn’t stressing him out. He slammed the end of his staff into the pavement between two cobblestones in the middle of an intersection and vaulted across the street.</p><p class="Preference"><em>It’s not any </em>one<em> of those things</em>, Cat Noir realized, racing across the roof ridge and leaping to the next building. <em>It really is just the combination</em>. He landed on the next rooftop, tucking and rolling to keep his momentum up. No matter how carefree and easy-going Cat Noir was, the boy under the mask was still a seventeen-year-old who occasionally felt like he was in over his head.</p><p class="Preference">By now, Cat Noir had traversed about half the city, placing him less than a kilometer from the Pacific Ocean. The breeze off the ocean wafted the scent of salt into his miraculous-enhanced nostrils. He inhaled deeply and spread his arms wide, stretching out the arm muscles that had begun to tense up after his long run.</p><p class="Preference">He was just about to run the final few blocks to the ocean when his heightened hearing picked up a faint rustling sound from the next building over. He narrowed his eyes and scanned the rooftop, looking for the source of the noise. He was just about to dismiss it as nothing but a stray cat when his eye settled on a patch of deeper darkness that began to rise up out of the pattern of the roof.</p><p class="Preference">He narrowed his eyes at the patch of darkness, dropping into a crouch as it moved. He gripped his staff tightly in both hands, holding it in front of himself in a defensive posture. The patch of darkness separated from the surrounding roof and leapt across the street separating them – a distance farther than he had ever seen anyone jump without a miraculous.</p><p class="Preference">The figure landed softly on the rooftop meters away from him and eyed him predatorily. In the dim light of the moon, Cat Noir could not make out all of the figure’s features, but she – he was certain it was a “she” – wore a silver-and-steel-colored bodysuit, sleeveless to reveal her tanned arms. A pair of silver ears not unlike his own sat on either side of her head, sticking out of her blond hair. The silver mask covering her eyes extended down the middle of her face to end in a black nose piece that covered her real nose.</p><p class="Preference">The mysterious figure bared her teeth at him. “¿Quién es? ¿Qué hace aquí? ¿Dónde encontró una milagrosa?”</p><p class="Preference">Cat Noir looked at her in confusion. “Who are you?” he asked. “What did you say?”</p><p class="Preference">“Si tiene una milagrosa en las Americas y no está con nosostros, Usted debe ser enemigo,” the stranger declared. “Y ¡voy a derrotarse!”</p><p class="Preference">Cat Noir dropped back as the stranger sprang at him. Lightning-fast she pulled a silver war club from her back, held it above her head, and swung down at Cat Noir’s head. He lifted his staff above his head, holding it horizontally in both hands, and caught the ball at the end of the club on his staff, swinging the staff above his head so the stranger’s momentum carried her over him. He spun around to face her, at the same moment that she twisted in midair, landed on the balls of her feet and one palm, and charged, barreling into his legs and sending him sprawling to the ground. He kicked out with both feet, pushing her off of him, and somersaulted backward to regain his footing.</p><p class="Preference">“Why are you attacking me?” he demanded, holding his staff to one side. “What did I do to you???”</p><p class="Preference">Instead of responding, his assailant attacked again, leaping and aiming a series of kicks at Cat Noir’s head. He ducked the first kick, blocked the second, and caught the third. In response, she pincered her legs around his neck, spun around to sit on his shoulders, and used her momentum to drag him to the ground. Cat Noir struggled for breath as he found his neck and chin trapped between her thighs. He punched her leg once, twice, three times. Finally, on the fourth punch, her grip weakened just enough for him to use his staff to pry his way free. He retreated across the roof as she kipped to her feet and raced after him.</p><p class="Preference">“¡Se venceré!” she shouted, swinging her war club vertically down at his head.</p><p class="Preference">Cat Noir dodged the swing, and she immediately redirected the club laterally. He leapt backward, and she spun into a kick. Cat Noir sidestepped the kick and brought up his staff, shortening it to sword-length, to parry the club swing she leveled at him. He followed the parry with a lunge at her chest which she dodged, using her war club to push his staff out of the way and leaving his side exposed. She punched him twice in his exposed side, and he fell back a pace. He dropped to the ground to sweep her legs out from under her, but she leapt over his leg. He followed the leg sweep with a kick that she dodged, sprang to his feet, and swung his staff down at her shoulder. She parried the swing, and he followed it up with a high kick to her chest. Across the roof he chased her before Cat Noir saw his opportunity.</p><p class="Preference">Someone had left a teetering pile of building materials in one corner of the roof. Cat Noir pushed his attacker backward, toward the pile, not allowing her to evade him. When they were right beside the pile, Cat Noir feinted a lunge to one side and followed it up with a kick to the other side. She evaded the lunge – straight into the kick. She reeled backward a step, and Cat Noir shouted, “Cataclysm!” before extending his Cataclysm-infused staff to swipe along the bottom edge of the pile. As one side of the pile crumbled to dust, the building materials wobbled for a moment before falling over on top of the woman, pinning her beneath the rubble.</p><p class="Preference">She glared up at Cat Noir in rage, struggling against the weight pressing down on her. He smirked. “I guess puns aren’t going to translate well,” he observed. “But you seem to be in a bit of a <em>purr</em>-dicament right now! <em>Howling</em> mad, even! Mind telling me why you were so <em>fur</em>-bent on fighting me?”</p><p class="Preference">She growled at him and reached for her war club, which Cat Noir kicked out of her reach. “Si va a matarme, hagalo,” she muttered in resignation.</p><p class="Preference">Cat Noir frowned. He really wished he had learned even a <em>little</em> more Spanish before this trip, but it was so last-minute he hadn’t even considered it. <em>“Matarme”…</em> <em>that sounds… do I recognize that from a video game or something?</em> “Wait… ‘matar’… ‘kill’?” He looked at her closely. “¿P-piensa mato?” he stuttered out. &lt;<em>You think I kill?</em>&gt;</p><p class="Preference">Now it was the stranger who gave him a funny look. “¿Usted no mató Al-Packa?” she asked, eyes narrowed suspiciously.</p><p class="Preference">This was getting them nowhere. “¿Habla francés?” &lt;<em>Do you speak French?</em>&gt;</p><p class="Preference">“No… ¿habla inglés?”</p><p class="Preference">Cat Noir relaxed. In English he answered, “Yes. Why do you think I am going to kill you?”</p><p class="Preference">She frowned. In the same language she asked, “Did you not kill my friend, Al-Packa, last week?”</p><p class="Preference">“Who?”</p><p class="Preference">“Al-Packa. He was one of our <em>milagrosa</em>… hmm… ‘miraculous’ holders. He was escorting a Guardian back to our temple last week. Someone killed him, stole his miraculous, and abducted the Guardian.”</p><p class="Preference">“Here? In Peru?” Cat Noir asked. When she nodded, he explained, “We only arrived here yesterday. We were still in France last week.”</p><p class="Preference">“If not you, then who could have done it? It must have been a miraculous user, and you are the only one I have met who is not part of our team.”</p><p class="Preference">“How did you know I had a miraculous?” he questioned.</p><p class="Preference">“It is the power of the Wolf Miraculous,” she replied. She stopped and looked meaningfully at the pile of rubble still pinning her down before raising an eyebrow at him under her mask.</p><p class="Preference">“If I help you out, do you promise not to attack me?” She nodded, and Cat Noir kicked her war club back to her before using his staff as a lever to shift the rubble off of her legs and lower back. She used the war club to push herself up slightly and pull herself forward. In a moment Cat Noir had moved enough of the debris for her to drag herself out with a little assistance. She pushed herself to her feet with her war club before bending over and brushing dust off of her legs. Looking more closely, Cat Noir could see that she looked only a few years older than him.</p><p class="Preference">“Gracias,” she told him. “My name is Lupa Gris. My miraculous allows me to sense nearby miraculous holders.”</p><p class="Preference">“Cat Noir,” he told her, shaking her hand. “I really wish I had your power,” he observed. “That would have been super useful for tracking down Hawk Moth last year! So can you just find <em>any</em> miraculous user?”</p><p class="Preference">“He really <em>was</em> a miraculous user?” Lupa Gris asked, eyes shooting wide open. “We had no idea of a miraculous with that ability. If we had known…”</p><p class="Preference">Cat Noir let out a bark of laughter. “If <em>we</em> had known about <em>you</em>, we would have asked for help. Count on it! But really, how does it work? Am I the only one you sense?”</p><p class="Preference">She shook her head. “I sense the rest of my team around the city. I can even sense my teammates who are not transformed because I recognize their miraculous aura. My range is longer when we are both transformed. If neither of us is transformed and I do not know them or their miraculous, I can only sense within a few meters. So I can tell there is another miraculous holder in Lima that I do not know, but not where they are specifically.” She fixed him with a piercing stare. “Judging by your reaction, that information is not news to you. I take it that your partner, la Mariquita, is here also?” Cat Noir nodded, and Lupa Gris groaned and slapped her forehead. “‘Mariquita’… of <em>course</em>. I should have made the connection sooner.” Seeing Cat Noir’s look of confusion, she added, “A couple years ago, my Kwami mentioned the time one of her previous holders teamed up with a Mexican miraculous user called ‘Mariquita.’ We just never made the connection.”</p><p class="Preference">Cat Noir thought for a moment. “It sounds like it is time for us to make that connection now, do you think?”</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>I know there’s at least one story out there with a fan-made Wolf Miraculous. However, I have not read any of those stories, so any resemblance between the Wolf Miraculous as I’ve imagined it and any other version is purely accidental. The same holds true with all the other miraculous I’ve created. There are a couple where I’ve borrowed from reader suggestions, but those will be noted when we get there (and none appear in this particular story).</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0005"><h2>5. Chapter 5</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Marinette immediately noticed something strange in Cat Noir’s tone of voice over the phone, even if the only thing he said was, “Could you come and meet me?”</p><p>Without a second thought, Marinette ran to the window she had opened to let in the cool night air on returning to her room, transforming an instant before diving through the opening. She threw her yo-yo out, caught it around a streetlight across the road, and pulled herself toward it so fast she almost flew, releasing that streetlight and catching a tree branch halfway there. She couldn’t imagine what might have happened to Cat Noir in the hour since he left that could leave him sounding so shaken. Following the tracker on her yo-yo, she arrived at Cat Noir’s location in a matter of minutes, to find him standing on a flat roof beside a small rooftop shed with a dim light illuminating a semicircular patch of the roof. He stood next to a woman she had never seen before who wore a silver sleeveless bodysuit with a steel-grey chest. She had black gloves reaching halfway up her forearms and a pair of calf-length black boots that cut off just below the bottom of her suit. At the moment she leaned against a silver war club while conversing quietly with Cat Noir. The ears on either side of her head turned toward Ladybug at the same moment as Cat Noir’s ears did the same.</p><p>Ladybug opened her mouth to call out to them as she landed on the roof, only for the greeting to die in her throat as a dark mass dropped from the sky toward her. She glimpsed a streak of gold in the moonlight, even as she dove to the side to avoid the sudden aerial attack. Her yo-yo came up in a shield almost of its own accord, catching a swinging mace before it would have smashed her head. She leapt backward at the same time as she looped her yo-yo around the newcomer’s legs and tugged, trying to unbalance him. He shot up into the air, carried by brown wings sprouting from his shoulders, and Ladybug dug her heels into the roof to keep herself from being pulled off her feet.</p><p>Before the fight could go any further, however, two voices shouted from the other side of the roof.</p><p>“Stop!”</p><p>“¡Para!”</p><p>Ladybug loosened her yo-yo fractionally, even as her assailant lowered his mace and descended back to the roof. Looking closer at him, he wore a gold bodysuit with a padded vest of brown and white texturing shaped like feathers covering his chest. Instead of a mask, he had a gold helmet that covered the top half of his face and came down to a pointed beak near the bridge of his nose. His wings receded slowly back into his suit.</p><p>“¡Lupa!” he called, not taking his eyes off of Ladybug. “¿Qué pasó? ¿Quiénes son? ¿Estás bien, mi amor?”</p><p>Cat Noir and the other stranger ran over to them, and Ladybug took her eyes off of the two unknown people briefly when Cat Noir wrapped his arms around her. She leaned the side of her face into his chest and asked, “Um… what?”</p><p>He chuckled. “You remember that whole ‘other miraculous sets’ thing that Old Chloe mentioned? I think we found them…”</p><p>Ladybug was about to respond when the others turned towards her. The man in gold, his arm draped over the woman in silver’s shoulder, coughed and said in English, “I… apologize for attacking you like that. Lupa Gris tells me you are la Mariquita y el Gato Negro de Paris. I am Águila Altísimo.”</p><p>Ladybug nodded. “It is nice to meet you,” she told him in the same language.</p><p>“We were unaware that the Heroes of Paris were <em>milagrosa</em> – ‘miraculous’ – users,” he continued, examining them both appraisingly. “Until today our American Guardians had only encountered a handful of miraculous outside our own set, and never the Cat Miraculous. But you must have such a large variety of miraculous in your set… tell me, do you really have the <em>Buho</em> Miraculous?”</p><p>“‘Buho’?” Ladybug asked, furrowing her brow.</p><p>“‘Owl,’” Lupa Gris translated, giggling.</p><p>Ladybug smacked her forehead and groaned. “He – no – um… it is a long story. But no, he does not have a miraculous.”</p><p>“Huh.” Águila Altísimo examined Ladybug’s face closely. “Lupa tells me she believes you are not responsible for the death of Al-Packa, that you arrived in Peru yesterday.”</p><p>Ladybug glanced at Cat Noir in confusion. He shrugged. “That is correct,” Ladybug replied.</p><p>“However, you are the only unknown miraculous holders she has sensed since we found him. Tell me, since only miraculous weapons can harm miraculous holders, if not you, then who killed him?”</p><p>Ladybug’s breath hitched. She could feel Cat Noir stiffen reflexively at the question. This explained the tension in his voice when he called her. She didn’t need to look at him to know that he’d had the same thought that she was having now. A battle-scarred 20-year-older version of Chloe Bourgeois had sat down across the table from them in a café and described a sword capable of exactly that, not six months earlier.</p><p>“I am afraid that is not entirely correct,” Ladybug began hesitantly. “There is something else that can cut through a miraculous suit. Have you ever heard of a group called the ‘Dark Acolytes of the Mundane’?”</p><p>Águila Altísimo shook his head, but Lupa Gris nodded slowly, brow furrowed in thought. “My Kwami has mentioned them before; she remembers being called into battle against a group of <em>contra-milagrosa fanáticos</em>… millennia ago. She was certain they had been eradicated. What have they to do with Al-Packa’s death?”</p><p>Cat Noir squeezed Ladybug’s waist, pulled her back into his chest, and explained, “Last year we were visited by someone from a possible future in which Ladybug had been killed and I… was not… The Ladybug of that future was killed by these ‘Dark Acolytes of the Mundane,’ using a weapon called the ‘Dark Sword of the Mundane.’ We do not know how it is possible, but this sword can kill miraculous users.”</p><p>“That… that is a lot to take in,” Lupa Gris admitted, eyes widening in surprise. “And your miraculous allow manipulation of time in this way?”</p><p>Ladybug nodded. “One miraculous in our set does,” she confirmed. “But this was not traveling through <em>time</em>; it was traveling between alternate dimensions or realities. We visited this possible future, one where I was… dead, as, I think, were the two of you, as well.”</p><p>“We… were killed in this future?” Águila Altísimo’s jaw dropped and he tightened his hold on Lupa Gris protectively. “That is not possible. I do not accept that.”</p><p>“Do you want proof?” Cat Noir asked suddenly. “Lupa Gris, did you tell me anything about your partner?” When she shook her head, he continued, “Is there any way that I could know about the Eagle Miraculous?”</p><p>“Only if it is in your <em>libro de milagrosa</em>,” Lupa Gris replied, eying him intently.</p><p>Ladybug shook her head. “Our <em>livre</em> –‘book’ – only has information about the miraculous in our own set; it says nothing about there even being any other miraculous sets.”</p><p>“Then there is no way for me to know that your Kwami’s name is Atsaa, except because I fought an evil Eagle Miraculous user who called himself ‘Shrieking Eagle’ in that alternate future.”</p><p>“How…?”</p><p>“I fought him and defeated him,” Cat Noir declared. “I pulled his miraculous – an eagle feather necklace – off of him and he de-transformed. I even unified the Eagle Miraculous with my own during the battle.”</p><p>Águila Altísimo let out a slow breath and slowly unclenched his hand from the eagle-feather clasp built into the front of his suit. “Say that I believe you,” he began hesitantly. “You think that these ‘Dark Acolytes of the Mundane’ are responsible for Al-Packa’s death?”</p><p>Ladybug grimaced. “If it was not another miraculous user, they are the best possibility.”</p><p>“Then there is nothing else to do,” Águila Altísimo stated as Lupa Gris nodded along. “We must find these Dark Acolytes and destroy this sword so they cannot use it on another miraculous user.”</p><p>“No complaints from me,” Cat Noir commented, clenching his fist. “I would not mind introducing that sword to the power of Destruction!”</p><p>“You seem to know more about this group than we do,” Lupa Gris observed. “Will you assist us?”</p><p>Ladybug looked up at Cat Noir, who was frowning, a conflicted look on his face. She squeezed his waist and he glanced down at her. “What are you thinking?” she asked him in French, turning around in his arms to face him.</p><p>“I don’t know,” he admitted, also switching to French. “We came here on business. We still have another meeting with Mme Lopez tomorrow morning. Then we have a meeting in Panama City in a couple days, and another in New York City on Friday. Plus I was planning on showing you more of the city.”</p><p>“If you don’t think we should abandon our Agreste responsibilities, I’m sure they will understand,” Ladybug told him. “Agreste did pay for this trip, and we are representing the company here.”</p><p>“That’s the thing,” Cat Noir replied, frowning. “I <em>want</em> to do this. I <em>want</em> to help the American miraculous team. I <em>really</em> want to go on this adventure!” He paused. “But I really don’t, either. The last time we tangled with these Dark Acolytes, you died.”</p><p>Ladybug looked into his eyes, wrapping her arms tightly around his chest. “That wasn’t me,” she reminded him. “That was a <em>possible</em> future – one where I didn’t die for another 7 years! And from what Chloe said, they were ambushed, outnumbered, just the two of them walking into a trap. This time <em>we</em> are seeking <em>them</em> out on our own terms. This time we aren’t alone. This time we would have a team backing us up.”</p><p>“You think we should do this?” he asked, eyebrows rising in surprise.</p><p>“Lupa Gris is right,” Ladybug told him, nodding. “We do know a little more about this. We are here. We can help. We <em>need</em> to help.”</p><p>Cat Noir sighed in relief, but then he furrowed his brow. “But what about the rest of the business trip?”</p><p>“Well,” Ladybug began slowly, a smirk forming on her lips, “we can’t exactly bring our chaperone on this trip, can we?”</p><p>“Not really,” Cat Noir agreed, eyes lighting up in recognition. “It would be kind of hard to explain all of… this.”</p><p>“So why don’t we let Mme Legrand worry about the meetings for now while we track down this sword?”</p><p>Cat Noir beamed at her enthusiastically. “I could kiss you right now, you know.”</p><p>“So what’s stopping you?” she asked, smiling impishly.</p><p>He pulled her into a tight hug and kissed her breathless. She wrapped her arms around his neck and held him close. After a minute she broke the kiss and rested her cheek against his chest.</p><p>“Ah, amor de jovenes,” they heard Águila Altísimo whisper, before being shushed by Lupa Gris.</p><p>Ladybug blushed and pushed Cat Noir away from her. “We will help you,” she told the American heroes in English, turning to look at them. “I hope we will be able to find these people. But unfortunately, we do not know where to find them. That future attack happened in Portugal, not America.”</p><p>“We will talk to our Kwamis tonight,” Lupa Gris promised. “Perhaps they can give us some idea of where to look. Meet us near la Plaza in the morning.”</p><p>“How will we know you?” Cat Noir asked.</p><p>“You forget: <em>I</em> will know <em>you</em>!”</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0006"><h2>6. Chapter 6</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p class="Preference">The next morning, Adrien was up before daybreak again. He dressed quickly and remade the hide-a-bed before ordering coffee and breakfast. While he waited for Marinette to wake up, he considered what he needed to pack in his carry-on bag to take along on this trip. The American heroes hadn’t given any idea how long this could take; Adrien didn’t think they knew any more than he and Marinette about this adventure. All they could do was take the path laid in front of them.</p><p class="Preference"><em>What will Mme Legrand think when we say we have to leave?</em> Adrien wondered. For as much sense as that plan had made last night, the light of morning displayed at least a few flaws. Starting with “what possible reason could they have for ditching out on a business trip after a single day?” Adrien pondered the question until a light tapping on the door indicated that the room service had arrived. He tipped the man delivering the food, placed the tray on the kitchen counter, and poured himself a mug of coffee. He was just about to take a sip when the door to Marinette’s room opened, and she came out, wearing the same clothes she had worn the night before.</p><p class="Preference">“Didn’t you sleep?” he asked, passing the mug to her and pouring another for himself. He took in the wrinkles of her blouse and unkempt pigtails, one of which had come undone during the night. A thin line was pressed into her left cheek.</p><p class="Preference">“I fell asleep on the desk at some point,” she admitted, yawning and stretching her arms. As if sensing where his eyes had been drawn, she set down the mug, reached up, and redid her pigtail. She sipped her coffee and sighed in contentment.</p><p class="Preference">“That can’t be comfortable.” Adrien shook his head affectionately and kissed the crease mark on her cheek. “Are you going to be okay to meet Lupa Gris and Águila Altísimo in a couple hours?”</p><p class="Preference">“It’s nothing I haven’t done before,” she replied, shrugging. “On either part. Do you have any idea how many schooldays I’ve gone through on less sleep than this? I’ll be fine, though I might need a nap eventually.”</p><p class="Preference">“Do we need to do something about your sleeping habits?”</p><p class="Preference">Tikki poked her head out of Marinette’s pigtail and sighed. “I’ve been trying for years. Good luck, though.” Seeing the plate of picarones on the counter, Tikki dove out of Marinette’s hair onto the tray with a squeal and shoved a whole picaron in her mouth.</p><p class="Preference">Adrien took a pork sandwich for himself while Marinette helped herself to the humitas. They ate quietly for a few minutes before the door to Mme Legrand’s bedroom swung open. “I hope there’s some coffee left for me?” she asked, eyeing the rapidly-dwindling pile of breakfast foods.</p><p class="Preference">“Of course,” Adrien assured her, pouring another mug and passing her the other pork sandwich along with a plate of scrambled eggs.</p><p class="Preference">“Now what is your plan today, dears?” Legrand asked after finishing her coffee in a single gulp. “We are meeting with Lorena at ten, remember.”</p><p class="Preference">Adrien coughed awkwardly, and Legrand arched an eyebrow at him.</p><p class="Preference">Marinette began, laughing shrilling, “Actually… something came up. Last night. Super last-minute. We need to–”</p><p class="Preference">“Dear, you can’t tell a lie to save your soul!” Legrand interrupted, arching an eyebrow at her. “Your parents told me you have some sort of secret double life thing going on and to trust you on it implicitly. Let me guess: something came up and you need to run off and do something secret. And now you need me to cover for you for a while.”</p><p class="Preference">Adrien’s jaw dropped. “Um… yeah, pretty much that,” he managed, giving her a sheepish grin.</p><p class="Preference">“You’re in luck,” Legrand observed, chuckling. “Marinette just so happens to have a new assignment after yesterday’s meeting: design some Latin American-inspired clothing for the local market! I’ll just explain to Lorena that she motivated you so much yesterday that you just <em>had</em> to get started on some new Latino designs, and Adrien went along for… encouragement. She’ll just eat that up. But that means you have to actually design something new, dear. If I had something to show her…”</p><p class="Preference">Wordlessly, Marinette tore a sheet out of her sketchpad and handed it over.</p><p class="Preference">“That works,” commented Legrand, glancing over the design quickly. She turned back to Adrien. “Now, the Dupain-Chengs trust the two of you, so I do, too. But they <em>did</em> ask me to keep an eye on you both. I’m sure you don’t need it, but still: if the next thing Marinette designs for herself is a line of maternity clothes, I will find another use for my fabric shears!”</p><hr/><p>“Do we have any idea what we’re doing?” Marinette asked, leaning into Adrien. The two of them stood to one side of the Plaza Mayor, Adrien looking up at the cathedral while Marinette examined the flowers growing alongside the plaza. A man lay on a bench across the Plaza from them, one arm hanging off the bench. A group of tourists was examining the building on the far side of the Plaza.</p><p class="Preference">“Nope,” Adrien replied. “You’re the planner, remember? Speaking of, do you really think we need this many changes of clothing?” He gestured to the backpack he carried, stuffed as it was with clothes and snacks for both of them and their Kwamis, in addition to both their passports, Marinette’s tablet, three new sketchpads, and a box of pencils.</p><p class="Preference">“Better to be over-prepared, right?”</p><p class="Preference">“Excuse me,” a woman who looked to be in her mid-twenties called in English, running over to them. She had a high blonde ponytail sticking out the back of her baseball cap, sunglasses, and a fanny pack, and wore a pair of hiking boots, high-cut khaki shorts, and a Ladybug T-shirt that didn’t quite match her silver-and-black bead earrings. “I am so sorry. I seem to have gotten lost. Could you point me to the ocean?”</p><p class="Preference">“We are tourists, also,” Adrien answered, also in English.</p><p class="Preference">“The ocean is that way,” Marinette said at the same time, pointing.</p><p class="Preference">“Oh, thank you so much!” the woman squealed, taking Marinette’s hand in both of hers and shaking furiously. “I am so glad I found someone to point me in the right direction! You might say the encounter is… <em>Miraculous</em>?”</p><p class="Preference">Adrien started and examined the woman more closely. Something on her left ring finger glinted silver. “Lupa G–?”</p><p class="Preference">“Just ‘Julia,’” she interrupted, smirking at them. “Come on. Pablo is waiting for us in the car.” She led them through the Plaza, down the street, into a back alley, and out onto another street. As they walked she called over her shoulder, “You realize you could <em>not</em> look more like tourists if you tried, right?”</p><p class="Preference">“<em>Us</em>?” Adrien retorted incredulously. “What about <em>you</em>?”</p><p class="Preference">“Please,” she scoffed, slipping her hat and sunglasses into the fanny pack and stowing it somewhere, “it is an easy disguise around here. People see me and assume I am just a <em>turista gringa</em>.”</p><p class="Preference">“Are you?” Marinette asked.</p><p class="Preference">“I was not born in Peru,” Julia confirmed, fixing her light-blue eyes on them, “but I have lived here almost ten years. Argentina,” she added, seeing the question in their faces. She gestured to the car in front of them before pulling open the front passenger-side door and getting in.</p><p class="Preference">“I have to ask,” Marinette said once they were all in the car, raising an eyebrow, “did you have that shirt <em>before</em> this morning?”</p><p class="Preference">“Dino Dan gave it to me as a <em>Navidad</em> gift,” she replied, rolling her eyes. “A reminder that the <em>Paris</em> heroes have merchandise and we do not. Should I have you sign it?” She grinned. “Although I think I already have your signature on this shirt, no?”</p><p class="Preference">Adrien’s eyebrows shot up, even as next to him Marinette’s breath hitched. The man in the driver’s seat, who appeared to be the same age as Julia, with black hair, brown eyes, and a slightly-darker complexion, gave her a look of surprise before turning around to look at them more closely and nodding in recognition.</p><p class="Preference">“I will take that as a ‘yes,’” she said, chuckling. “Oh, come on, you practically gift-wrapped it for me last night, Cat-drien Noi-greste. You said sensing miraculous would have made finding Hawk Moth easier, even though I do not know his miraculous and would have to be in the same room with him to find it. Add in that – at least according to Instagram – the son of the former Hawk Moth is on a trip to Peru with his girlfriend? Easy enough to figure out.”</p><p class="Preference">The driver scoffed. “She means she recognized your face without the mask,” he informed them. “She… might have gone a little off the deep end after that perfume commercial made it across the Atlantic!” Julia punched him in the arm playfully as he maneuvered them through the traffic and out of the city. “My name is Pablo,” he added.</p><p class="Preference">“Is it just the two of you?” Adrien asked, leaning back into the seat. Marinette slid sideways into his side, and he wrapped his arm around her waist, resting his hand on her stomach.</p><p class="Preference">“Most of our team is still in Lima,” Pablo replied. “While we look into this ‘Dark Acolytes of the Mundane,’ they will continue scouring the city for clues.”</p><p class="Preference">“Where are we going?” Marinette asked, watching the scenery shift outside the car.</p><p class="Preference">“El templo,” Julia answered. “Our temple is a few hours north from here. My Kwami, Mettli, thinks we might find something there.”</p><p class="Preference">The silver wolf Kwami phased out of Julia’s fanny pack and flitted into the backseat, where she examined Marinette closely. “Hi!” she squeaked. “You have a scent of Tikki to you!”</p><p class="Preference">At that Tikki and Plagg both appeared from the backpack Adrien had dropped to the floor by their feet. Tikki took one look at the new Kwami and squealed, “Mettli! It’s been ages!” before embracing her. Plagg, meanwhile, held himself back and watched suspiciously. Tikki rolled her eyes and pulled him over. “Come on, you silly cat. Be polite…”</p><p class="Preference">“You know cats and dogs don’t get along,” Plagg retorted folding his arms.</p><p class="Preference">“You know the Ladybug Kwami?” Julia asked, giving her Kwami a look of surprise. “And you did not even suggest this might be a miraculous problem?”</p><p class="Preference">Mettli shrugged. “She’s only been to this continent a couple times, so I couldn’t be sure it was really a miraculous problem. Besides, she’s not <em>really</em> part of the pack anymore…”</p><p class="Preference">Tikki shook her head and giggled. “Oh, Mettli. Please never change,” she muttered affectionately, patting Mettli on the head.</p><p class="Preference">“Tell them what you told us last night,” Julia instructed. “We have about eight hours to go.”</p><p class="Preference">Mettli nodded, pulled a piece of beef jerky out of the seatback pouch, and bit into it. “There really isn’t that much to tell,” she began, swallowing her jerky. “It was… 3000 of your human years ago, I think? Not too long after the first Guardians brought our miraculous set to the Americas. They were followed by a group that hid in shadows and struck when the Guardians’ backs were turned. They did not use miraculous, so I could not sense them. However high he flew, Atsaa’s holder could not spot them. The Guardians fell one by one, and as their numbers dwindled, they came to a decision: they had to make a stand.</p><p class="Preference">“The battle was… grueling.” The Kwami was silent for a moment, lost in thought. “The Crocodile holder fell first, followed by the Raccoon and then the Cicada. In the end, the Eagle was the only one left, alongside his lover, my own holder. He told her to Howl, combined the Dinosaur, Crocodile, Cicada, and Bear with his own miraculous, and unleashed such devastation on these Dark Acolytes that none could have survived. He, however, fell from the sky. Dead.”</p><p class="Preference">“Why has Atsaa never spoken of this?” Pablo asked, not taking his eyes off the road.</p><p class="Preference">“The strain of combining so many miraculous?” Mettli replied, frowning. “The loss of his holder? He has not spoken Eagle-of-the-Wind’s name since the battle. My own holder was so devastated that she renounced her miraculous and refused to transform again as long as she lived. Though construction on their temple had begun before the battle, she insisted on abandoning that site and moving further south to escape the memories.”</p><p class="Preference">As the story had progressed, Adrien had found himself hugging Marinette tighter and tighter. He could imagine the pain that ancient Wolf had felt; he didn’t know if he would have made a different choice in the same situation. A glance at Marinette showed her staring at Mettli with tears welling in the corners of her wide-open eyes. He reached up to brush them away with his thumb, snapping her out of her reverie.</p><p class="Preference">“Do you remember anything about the battle?” Marinette asked, eyes narrowing in concentration, her Ladybug side bleeding through.</p><p class="Preference">Mettli shook her head. “It was long ago, and my holder was transformed most of the time those days; all I know is what she told me after the fact. And once we reached Moche, she spent her years in isolation.”</p><p class="Preference">Adrien frowned and looked out the window, watching the countryside pass them by. His eye was drawn to a dark sedan nearly a kilometer behind them – the only other vehicle on the road. Something about it…</p><p class="Preference">“Julia,” he asked, “do you sense any miraculous nearby?”</p><p class="Preference">She was quiet for a moment, shoulders straining in concentration. “No,” she replied slowly. “Only the four of us. We’re too far away to even sense the others in the city. Why?”</p><p class="Preference">“That car looks familiar,” he explained. “I think I saw it before we left.”</p><p class="Preference">“<em>Chico</em>, do you know how many dark sedans there are?” Pablo asked sardonically, choking down a laugh. “It is nothing.”</p><p class="Preference">Adrien nodded, even as the sedan sped up and whipped past them before disappearing down the road in front of them.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>The American Miraculous Heroes come from all over the hemisphere. Julia is from Argentina, though her ancestry is German. Pablo is from Mexico.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0007"><h2>7. Chapter 7</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Marinette looked up in awe at the imposing temple before them. An enormous stone pyramid loomed over the valley below, rising seamlessly in stepped levels from the cultivated terraces built into the mountainside. The car slowly picked its way along the gravel path, having left the main roads behind a kilometer below.</p><p>“What is this place?” she breathed.</p><p>“The Miraculous Temple of the Americas,” Pablo replied proudly. “The <em>andenes</em> – ‘terraces’ – grow all the food we need, and even some extra we can sell.”</p><p>“How is somewhere like this even possible?” Adrien wondered. “Haven’t people… <em>seen</em> it?”</p><p>“How is <em>your</em> temple hidden?” Julia replied, shrugging. “The Guardians built concealments into the temple. Since the arrival of the Conquistadores and destruction of the empires, all anyone else sees is a ruin.”</p><p>“We… don’t have a temple,” Adrien told them, unable to take his eyes off the temple. “The one our set came from was destroyed.”</p><p>They turned a corner onto the last terrace to see a broad-shouldered man in a Panama hat, jeans, and a long-sleeved shirt leaning against a shovel by the side of the road, mopping his forehead with a bandana. The car stopped and he walked over to the driver’s window.</p><p>“Pablo,” he asked, “¿encontraste el asesino?”</p><p>Pablo shook his head. “No, pero encontramos usuarios de milagrosa europeos. Investigamos una idea con ellos.”</p><p>The newcomer’s eyes darted to the backseat. “¿Hablan español?” he asked them.</p><p>Marinette shook her head.</p><p>“English then?” he continued in that language. When Marinette nodded, the man grinned. “Name’s Dan,” he told them, sticking an enormous hand through the window. Marinette, then Adrien, shook it awkwardly. “We’re cleaning out an irrigation ditch at the moment. Of course, I <em>could</em> clear it out in an instant if <em>someone</em> was cooperating.” He tapped his hat for emphasis.</p><p>A high-pitched muffled voice from his hat retorted, “I dug the Grand Canyon, buddy; my power is <em>not</em> for farming!”</p><p>Dan scoffed and turned back toward the front seat. “Let me know if you find anything,” he told them, hefting his shovel and backing away from the car. “Someone’s gonna be taking a lava bath after what they did to Al…” he called over his shoulder.</p><p>“His name is ‘Dan,’ and his hero name is ‘Dino Dan,’” Adrien deadpanned, a dubious expression on his face.</p><p>“Not our idea,” Pablo retorted, raising the window.</p><p>“He thought it sounded ‘funny,’” Julia added, rubbing her forehead.</p><p>“Are all Americans like that?” Marinette wondered.</p><p>The car pulled up to one side of the pyramid and stopped near the middle of the wall. Marinette looked all the way up and down that face of the pyramid. Each step was around four meters in height and inset the same distance from the step below it. However, Marinette couldn’t see a single entryway, or even window, in the structure; the entire structure was made of solid, too-smooth stone. “How do we get in?” she asked, following Pablo and Julia to the exact center of the pyramid’s base, Adrien beside her.</p><p>Julia raised her left hand and placed her palm against a stone around shoulder-height off the ground. The seam around the stone glowed silver for a moment and shifted to gold. The line of light spread outward through the cracks between all the stones in that area. While Marinette watched, a dozen stones shimmered and disappeared, leaving in their place a smooth wooden door. Looking up at the rest of the pyramid, Marinette was surprised to see windows spread out every few meters along each step.</p><p>Seeing the awestruck looks on both their faces, Julia chuckled. “All guardians and miraculous holders can see the temple, but not all of them are welcome! Come on.” She pushed the door open and ushered them inside.</p><p>Warm yellow light seemed to emanate from the walls of the temple. Their footsteps echoed along the tiled floors and walls as the Americans led them down a corridor and up several flights of stairs. The walls to either side were covered in ornate tiled mosaics featuring bright blues and deep reds. Marinette’s eyes were drawn to the sharp geometric shapes – diamonds and triangles, squares covered in patterns and faces. “I could spend hours looking at these,” she commented as Pablo gestured for them to enter a room near the middle of the pyramid where the furnishings took a much more modern turn.</p><p>“Some of the initiates spend days meditating on a single mosaic,” a voice called from the far side of the room. A wiry man with glasses and long black hair held back by a studded headband poked his head out from behind a partition before stepping out fully and crossing the room to meet them.</p><p>“John!” Julia called, giving the man a quick hug before Pablo shook his hand.</p><p>“Any luck yet?” Pablo asked, nodding toward the computer system Marinette hadn’t noticed along the wall.</p><p>John shook his head. “Nothing,” he replied. “No trace of his miraculous. No ‘John Doe’ bodies have been found anywhere in South America. For all I know, Diego is still alive, but we can’t know for sure.” He gestured toward the partition. “All I can tell from Alan’s body is that he was killed with a blade of some kind, and he was dead before they cut his arm off to remove his miraculous. But how that is possible?” He shrugged. At that moment he looked past Julia and Pablo to see Adrien and Marinette. “Who are your friends?” he asked, raising his eyebrows in surprise.</p><p>“I… <em>found</em> Ladybug and Cat Noir in Lima, and they had an idea for us to look into,” Julia replied. “Could you set them up with the Miraculous History? I have never seen these ‘Dark Acolytes’ mentioned, but perhaps you will have better luck,” she commented, looking at Adrien and Marinette.</p><p>Adrien followed John to a computer terminal and sat down. Marinette hung back by the other two, frowning. Something was niggling in the back of her mind, but she couldn’t quite figure out what it was. “If it is all right with you,” she began, looking at Julia, “I would like to examine those mosaics more closely. There was something… familiar about them.”</p><p>Julia’s eyes betrayed some surprise, but she nodded. “By all means,” she told her. “We will arrange guest quarters for you. If you need anything, just shout a name.”</p><p>Marinette thanked them and left to slowly work her way back toward the entrance. She looked closer at the mosaics as she passed them. Near the main hallway she found a line of silver tiles that ran through several of the images; she hadn’t noticed that detail on the way up. Curious, Marinette followed the thread down the stairs, around multiple corners, and through several doorways. As she went, she recognized other motifs repeating every few meters in turn. Identical shapes created with different colors. The silver tiles were joined by a golden line of tiles in an explosion of color, with the two running parallel, intersecting and diverging occasionally. A monstrous face with many tentacles, but less of them each time it appeared, hovered over the silver-and-gold line. The line finally terminated at the door of a small cubicle which – if she hadn’t gotten hopelessly lost – was in the far back corner of the lowest level. The hinges protested as Marinette pushed the door open. One look at the walls, and she gasped.</p><p>“I–I don’t believe it,” she whispered, the breath disturbing the dust that had settled on the floor centimeters thick. “Adrien!” she called. “Julia! Pablo!” The names echoed off the walls, reverberating in an unnatural manner.</p><p>Marinette pulled out her phone and started taking pictures while waiting for the others to arrive. A few minutes later, all three of them had joined her in the middle of the cubicle. Adrien looked at the walls appreciatively. “I didn’t have any luck,” he informed her in French, “but the history only covers the period after the founding of this temple; it begins with someone called Wonder-Mother choosing the Moche Valley for her new home.”</p><p>“Do you realize what this is?” Marinette asked them all, switching to English. She gestured toward the wall.</p><p>Adrien shook his head and frowned. A glance at the other two showed that they didn’t understand, either.</p><p>“I did recognize something in the mosaic,” Marinette told them, “but it is not because I have seen it in this exact manner before. It is because I used a similar <em>technique</em> before. Adrien, you walk past them every time you go home!” She bounced on the balls of her feet in excitement, a wide grin covering her face. “<em>Symbolisme abstrait</em> – the mosaics use symbolism!”</p><p>Seeing confused looks around her, Marinette turned to Julia. “Mettli, was this your holder’s cubicle? The one who designed the temple?”</p><p>The Kwami poked her head out of Julia’s ponytail and looked around. “This looks right,” she confirmed, bobbing her head. “No one wanted to use her room after she died, and there’s so much room in the temple that the Guardians never needed it, so it just got forgotten.”</p><p>“She must have covered the walls with mosaics as a way to work through her grief,” Marinette said. “But she did not use anything specific; she used abstract images. The line of silver tiles that I followed down here was her life – silver for the color of her miraculous. It was met by a golden line which began in a tableau of every color diverging from a single point. The lines ran together to this room. It was her life!” Marinette squealed eagerly. “I was following it backwards! She showed <em>everything</em>! And this room–” she pointed to the far wall “–this shows the history of the miraculous!”</p><p>“How can you possibly know that?” Pablo asked, following where she pointed. “We have studied the mosaics for millennia and never suspected that.”</p><p>“This is exactly what I did for the tapestries in the front entrance hall of our mansion,” Marinette replied, vibrating excitedly. “Abstract images which, if you know what to look for, tell a story. But here” she pointed to one symbol “is the clincher: this is the symbol on our Miracle Box.”</p><p>Julia gasped and pointed at a symbol near that one. “Our Miracle Box has that symbol on it!”</p><p>Pablo examined them closer. “What are the other three symbols, then? One in the center, with our two symbols and two others surrounding it.”</p><p>Marinette frowned. “I do not know,” she admitted. “Other miraculous sets? I think this wall is portraying the creation of the miraculous and their separation. See here? The symbol for our miraculous set appears again on that wall, surrounded by this black shape of triangles that might be a mountain range. The other two appear down there. The one in the middle shifts to black and then fades into blue moving down the wall. And the symbol for your set is right there, tiny and set in the top corner of that triangle.”</p><p>“What does it all mean?” Julia asked, spinning around to take it all in.</p><p>“If this <em>does</em> show the history of the miraculous,” Marinette began, “then this must be the different sets when they were separated. And this thread shows your set traveling down to this temple.” Marinette gestured for them to follow her out of the cubicle. She led them down the same series of hallways and stairways that she had followed, stopping occasionally to point out specific symbols.</p><p>Right outside the cubicle, the silver and gold tile lines started, with some separation between them. “You see how both the silver and the gold start together? That has to be her and Eagle-of-the-Wind. The colors are all bright and blue right here, and then shift to a warm, welcoming red-and-orange pattern right here when the silver and gold come together.”</p><p>She pointed to the first instance of the monster. “I thought that this monster-head was <em>losing</em> tentacles, but it is actually <em>gaining</em> them as the story progresses. And each time the monster-head gains a tentacle, the color palette becomes darker and the bordering around the gold and silver becomes thinner.”</p><p>Finally, Marinette stopped in front of the explosion of color that had so captivated her on the way to John’s lab. Looking closer, she could pick out distinctive sets of colors, all emanating from a single dark red stone surrounded by a bordering of gold dust. “If I am right, this is when Eagle-of-the-Wind sacrificed himself for her.” Pointing down the hallway she continued, “This is where the gold ends and the silver continues alone. It is also where the darkness is swallowed up in this bright explosion. Do you recognize anything in the color schemes?” she asked, turning to Pablo and Julia and raising an eyebrow.</p><p>“Madre de Dios,” Pablo breathed, mouth hanging open in shock. He traced a line of green tiles. “El Cocodrilo.” A line of light brown tiles. “El Oso.” A line of mottled green and dark brown tiles. “El Dinosaurio.” And a line of mint and yellow tiles. “La Cigarra.”</p><p>Julia nodded. “Those are indeed the colors of the Crocodile, Bear, Dinosaur, and Cicada Miraculous,” she confirmed. “I cannot comprehend how we did not recognize this sooner!”</p><p>“All emanating from a single golden point, expanding out through these dark shapes,” Marinette explained. “And then? The darkness is gone. And so is the gold, leaving the silver alone.”</p><p>Julia gave her an evaluating look. “But then, if this does represent the battle, how does it help us find these ‘Dark Acolytes of the Mundane,’ <em>if</em> they even still exist?” she asked, brow furrowed.</p><p>Brow furrowed in concentration, Marinette looked closer at the mosaic section which seemed to show the battle between the ancient American Guardians and the Dark Acolytes of the Mundane. She could start to identify small patterns within the chaos. One figure in particular repeated over and over. “Do you recognize this?” she asked, pointing to one example. The other three holders shook their heads, but the four Kwamis moved closer to the wall.</p><p>“Of course I’ve seen that symbol before!” Mettli squeaked, clapping her paws together. “Do you remember, Atsaa? One of my holders – 700 years ago, maybe? – was an Apishapa. I remember seeing that shape on some of their ceramics. They were in… today’s Colorado, I think?”</p><p>“You think there is a connection, Bugaboo?” Adrien asked.</p><p>“Maybe?”</p><p>Pablo shared a look with Julia, and they both nodded simultaneously. “This is the only lead we have found,” he told them. “We need to at least check it out. Tomorrow, I think, we leave for los Estados.”</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Remember, “Battle of the Miraculous” is not part of this universe, so the Miracle Box is always going to look the same way that it did for Fu; it doesn’t change its design based on the Guardian.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0008"><h2>8. Chapter 8</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p class="Preference">Adrien woke slowly the next morning to find Marinette’s head on his shoulder, her hair spread out over his T-shirt. Tikki and Plagg were curled up together on Marinette’s otherwise-unused pillow. He gave her a soft kiss before squeezing her shoulder gently. She shook her head and buried her face in his chest without opening her eyes.</p><p class="Preference">“Come on, Princess,” he teased, poking her side. “It’s going to be a long day and we need to leave soon if we’re going to make our flight. We don’t want to keep them waiting, do we?”</p><p class="Preference">“Why can’t I ever sleep in on this Spring Break?” she grumbled, wrapping her arms around him and hugging him tightly.</p><p class="Preference">“Because we’re on the wrong continent?” he asked. “Because our flight leaves in less than two hours? It won’t be <em>so</em> bad; at least you can sleep on the planes.”</p><p class="Preference">“I guess,” she sighed, pushing herself up on her elbows. “I was planning to work on some designs, though, since you made me go to bed early last night.”</p><p class="Preference">“Oh I <em>made</em> you, did I?” he smirked, causing her to blush.</p><p class="Preference">“Oh, fine.” Marinette pouted for a minute before breaking down in giggles. She turned serious. “Have you thought about what we are going to do?” she asked.</p><p class="Preference">Adrien sighed. “This seemed so much simpler when we <em>didn’t</em> have a plan,” he admitted. “Now… I don’t know if I’m more concerned that we <em>will</em> find the Dark Acolytes, or that we <em>won’t</em>.”</p><p class="Preference">“I felt you fidgeting all night,” she told him, fixing him with a sympathetic stare. “Bad dreams?”</p><p class="Preference">“No worse than usual,” he shrugged. “Waking up with you in my arms helped.”</p><p class="Preference">“I’m glad.” She smiled warmly.</p><p class="Preference">Adrien’s eyes were suddenly drawn to a retching sound on the other side of the bed. “Ugh! Must you two be <em>so</em>… sappy?!?” Plagg drawled, rolling his eyes.</p><p class="Preference">“Plagg!” reproached Tikki. “<em>You</em>’re more of a helpless romantic than <em>I</em> am,” she squeaked. “Why, do you remember when the Guardians sent me to Mexico? You almost sank the Pinta in protest!”</p><p class="Preference">“About that,” Adrien began, “why didn’t you tell us anything about the American Miraculous?”</p><p class="Preference">Plagg shrugged. “There really isn’t much to tell,” he replied. “There are miraculous sets scattered around the world, but the different sets really don’t interact all that much. The American Guardians were always perfectly content to handle their own problems their own way. I’ve only been to America once before, and the Dinosaur of the time almost tornadoed my holder back to Tibet!”</p><p class="Preference">Tikki added, “The Ladybug Miraculous travels much more often than any of the others, since the Ladybug and Cat are the two strongest. But neither Guardian who brought my miraculous here was exactly <em>welcomed</em> in America. The American Guardians never allowed us to even <em>see</em> this temple.”</p><p class="Preference">“Why is that?” Marinette wondered.</p><p class="Preference">“Atsaa has an… <em>independent</em>… streak,” Tikki began delicately. “If it were up to him, he would never work with another Kwami apart from maybe Mettli. And Mettli, well, she is fiercely loyal to her pack, but just as fiercely suspicious of those she doesn’t know. And her pack is her miraculous set, and for the last couple millennia those she doesn’t know includes every other Kwami in existence. Hopefully this will help her to trust us a little more.”</p><p class="Preference">“If that’s the case, we’d better not keep them waiting!” Marinette decided, throwing the covers aside and pushing herself out of the bed.</p><hr/><p>Adrien and Marinette made their way through the temple to the communal dining hall, where they found Julia sitting next to Pablo with a toddler on her lap. Around their table were Dan, John, and a girl with dark skin that Adrien didn’t recognize. Pablo waved them over and, after serving themselves from the buffet, they sat down in the empty seats at their table.</p><p class="Preference">“How are you enjoying the temple?” the new girl asked.</p><p class="Preference">“It’s absolutely fascinating!” Marinette replied enthusiastically. “I had no idea the Guardians of the Miraculous could build something like this!”</p><p class="Preference">“I know! I’ve been here for a year already, and I still haven’t seen everything yet!”</p><p class="Preference">“What do you do here?” Adrien asked. “Miraculous holder?”</p><p class="Preference">The girl nodded. “A Guardian – it was Mme Barreda, actually – came to my village and determined that I had a good heart suited to become a miraculous holder,” she explained. “My parents were concerned, of course, but allowed me to leave with her. It’s… been a struggle, being at the temple, away from my friends and family back home. Julia and Pablo have all-but adopted me here, and I’ve been back to visit a couple times, but…”</p><p class="Preference">Marinette nodded sympathetically. “I can’t imagine how hard that must be.” She shivered. “We’ve been fortunate, I guess, in not being confined to a temple far away from our families.”</p><p class="Preference">“But how have you learned about the Miraculous?” the girl asked, astonished. “How have you trained? Where do your Guardians <em>live</em>?”</p><p class="Preference">“Our Guardian actually lives in a massage parlor down the street,” Marinette answered, laughing. “And as far as training, we were fighting Hawk Moth so long… <em>that’s</em> where all our training came from!”</p><p class="Preference">Adrien’s eyes bugged out and his jaw dropped open. Seeing the confused look Marinette gave him, he turned to the new girl and asked, “You speak French?” Marinette’s eyes shot open in realization.</p><p class="Preference">The girl giggled. “It’s actually one of my first languages! You can’t <em>imagine</em> how much I’ve been <em>dying</em> to find someone who speaks French! My name is Lise, by the way.”</p><p class="Preference">“Where are you from, Lise?” Marinette asked.</p><p class="Preference">“Haiti,” she replied. “At the moment, I’m the only French-speaker – well, French and Creole – on the team; Paola over there is the only Portuguese-speaker. Everyone else speaks either English or Spanish as their first language. The first thing I had to learn on coming here was Spanish – even before learning about the miraculous. But what about you? Europe’s got all kinds of languages; what do your teammates speak?”</p><p class="Preference">“French,” Adrien replied, surprised.</p><p class="Preference">“Really? Are they all from France?”</p><p class="Preference">“Umm… they’re actually… almost all… from my class in school…” Marinette replied sheepishly.</p><p class="Preference">“Huh.” Lise gave her a look of surprise.</p><p class="Preference">“We didn’t exactly have time to search all of Europe for helpers,” Adrien explained, putting an arm around Marinette. “We needed to give the miraculous to people we trusted.”</p><p class="Preference">“Sorry… I’m just trying to wrap my head around a team where everyone’s speaking my language!”</p><p class="Preference">“I don’t know if I’d go <em>that</em> far…” Marinette smirked. “You haven’t heard Adrien here punning his way through a fight against a spaghetti monster! And that’s <em>without</em> throwing in Carapace and King Monkey! I’m still not sure if what they speak even qualifies as French!”</p><p class="Preference">“If the three of you are ready,” Julia interrupted them in English, “we do need to talk through our plan. Lise, take Marco to the playroom; we’ll stop in to say goodbye before we leave.” Seeing the disappointment on Lise’s face, she continued, “We already decided. I am sorry, but not this time.”</p><p class="Preference">After Lise left, Julia turned to Adrien and Marinette. “She only received the Cicada Miraculous last month,” she explained. “And although she’s gifted, I do not want to risk an untested pup in a fight against an enemy that has already killed one member of my team! Dino Dan and Man-Bear are going to accompany us.”</p><p class="Preference">“I can’t wait to get my lasso around whatever low-down good-fer-nothin’ killed my friend,” growled Dan, slamming his coffee mug on the table.</p><p class="Preference">“Easy, friend,” John advised. “We still need to <em>find</em> them. And if, as the Ladybug suspects, these Dark Acolytes are truly vestiges of the same prehistoric anti-miraculous group that fought the ancient Guardians, we must be cautious.”</p><p class="Preference">“Yeah, yeah, these guys maybe slaughtered a generation of Guardians, cut down a dozen miraculous holders, and supposedly murder a future Ladybug,” Dan scoffed. “What else is new? We’ve dealt with way crazier stuff than that!”</p><p class="Preference">“That doesn’t mean we should just run into the danger without considering it!” John retorted. “If we do that, there’s a 100% chance that someone ends up dead. And how would that help us, or Diego? How would that be justice for Alan?”</p><p class="Preference">“And if we just wait around and be cautious, how are we ever going to find them? How is it justice if we pussy-foot around?”</p><p class="Preference">“Both of you need to calm down,” Pablo interrupted. “We will not sit around and do nothing, but we also will not run in blind. We will do this the right way.”</p><p class="Preference">Adrien looked over to see Julia trying to stifle a laugh while the three continued to argue. He leaned closer and whispered, “Are they usually like this?”</p><p class="Preference">“Only all the time,” she replied, rolling her eyes. “You would think Dan and John hate each other with how they bicker, but…” she shrugged. “Maybe it is <em>because</em> their personalities clash. Maybe it is because they and Alan were the only <em>estadounidenses</em> – ‘Americans’ – among the miraculous holders. Who knows? Whatever the reason… it is what it is.”</p><p class="Preference">“Do you have much contact with the American heroes?” Marinette asked quietly.</p><p class="Preference">With a shake of her head, Julia answered, “Not really. Every few years a Guardian will search the States for worthy candidates, but other than that we tend to keep to ourselves. Of course, they normally do not bother with anything south of them. During World War II we came to an agreement with the Allied powers: what heroes they had fought on the European front, while the Grey Wolf of the day led a small group to assist in the War in the Pacific. The Dinosaur Miraculous holder at the time went to defend the Canal. The Soaring Eagle spent a decade after the War hunting Nazi war criminals in my own home country. But that is the extent of our involvement up north.”</p><p class="Preference">Adrien tuned out their conversation to focus back on the other three. Dan and Pablo had moved on to argue about the better version of “football”; John was checking something on his phone. Adrien asked John, “So you have the Bear Miraculous?”</p><p class="Preference">John nodded. “The Bear Miraculous has been passed down within my clan for millennia,” he explained. “Ursaa, my Kwami, even says the Bear was chosen as the clan’s animal because of her. All the other holders are chosen before they are given a specific miraculous; the Bear’s holder, however, is chosen for that miraculous.”</p><p class="Preference">“What do you mean, ‘clan’?”</p><p class="Preference">Laughing, John commented, “I assume you understand the term. ‘Clan’: a group of related people, extended family. In my case, the Bear Clan of the Seneca Nation.”</p><p class="Preference">Adrien stared blankly.</p><p class="Preference">“My people are American Indians,” John told him. “From what I have pieced together in my studies of the Temple’s history – as well as the oral tradition of Native Americans on both continents – the prehistoric Guardians came to America with a larger group. While the Guardians stayed together, the rest of the people spread out across two continents. When they moved south, the Guardians thought the Bear Miraculous to have been lost, but it had been found. The man who found it led his group to settle near the Atlantic. He became the chief of what eventually became known as the Seneca Tribe. A little over a millennium ago, a Grey Wolf was passing through North America, visited our people, and discovered the Great Bear. He convinced Great Bear to join the Guardians, with the promise that every future Bear Miraculous holder would come from his clan.”</p><p class="Preference">“I had no idea there were miraculous groups outside of the Guardians,” Adrien observed.</p><p class="Preference">“The Bear’s history is the only example of the phenomenon in the Americas,” replied John.</p><p class="Preference">“Don’t get Johnny started on that history stuff, kid,” Dan interrupted. “He could talk your ear off on that, especially the history of his <em>own</em> miraculous!”</p><p class="Preference">“At least the history of <em>my</em> miraculous is <em>interesting</em>!” John retorted, grinning.</p><p class="Preference">Dan was about to answer when Julia spoke up. “You can continue this debate in the van, boys,” he told them. “Our flight leaves in an hour, so we need to get going <em>now</em> if we are going to catch it. Then, once we arrive in los Estados, we will have to hope that Mettli can put us on the correct trail.”</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0009"><h2>9. Chapter 9</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p class="Preference">Marinette flipped the cover shut on her sketchpad and stretched her arms to work the kinks out of her joints before following the others off the final airplane and into the terminal. The sketchpad had been completely empty when they left the temple; now there wasn’t a single unused page left. They had spent over a day shuttling between planes and airports, first a flight back to Lima, then a quick layover before they took off for America. After waiting in line for ages to go through customs in Los Angeles, they had slept at the airport to they wouldn’t miss the early flight to Denver. They had spent fully half of the previous day cramped on airplanes, and the other half cooped up in airports. The only silver lining to the trip was that instead of sleeping on the floor, Adrien had gotten them into the business lounge so they were at least comfortable.</p><p class="Preference">“Are you okay, Princess?” Adrien asked, interlacing their fingers as Dan led their group through the airport toward the car rentals.</p><p class="Preference">“I’m fine,” she assured him. “This morning wasn’t nearly as bad as yesterday. Besides, I finished another design!”</p><p class="Preference">“Mme Legrand will be impressed,” he commented. “At this rate you’ll have an entire Latin America-inspired line of clothes ready to go by the time we get home!”</p><p class="Preference">“This one actually isn’t for that,” Marinette told him, blushing. She flipped to the last page of her sketchpad and held it out to him. “It’s actually inspired by Lupa Gris and Águila Altísimo. If the Heroes of Paris won’t sell well in South America, maybe we can sell something based on <em>their</em> heroes.”</p><p class="Preference">“This looked really good,” he praised, returning the sketchpad. “Are you going to show it to them?”</p><p class="Preference">She nodded, sidestepping around a group of tourists standing near the bathrooms. “I hope they like it. I hope they’re okay with us using their image.”</p><p class="Preference">“I’m sure they will be,” Adrien assured her. A man in dark sunglasses bumped into Marinette as he hurried past, sending her stumbling into Adrien. Adrien was about to call the man out when Marinette put her finger to his lips and shook her head. Adrien sighed and continued to follow the group.</p><p class="Preference">By this time they had left the airport and found their rented van. The six heroes piled inside, and Julia asked in English, “Okay, Mettli, where should we go now?”</p><p class="Preference">The Kwami phased out of her hiding spot and looked around, confusion evident on her face. “Looking at the mountains,” Mettli began, “I think his people settled further south. The village was beside a river that flowed north into the longer river. But I do remember passing through this area with Miracle Mother and Eagle-of-the-Wind.”</p><p class="Preference">John whipped out his phone and scrolled through maps before showing some pictures to the Kwami. “It sounds like it was a tributary of the Arkansas River,” he commented. “And there is a river named Apishapa that fits your description. Does any of this look familiar?”</p><p class="Preference">After a moment of consideration, Mettli finally said, “This might be it, but I can’t be certain. Or it might be this one. Everything looks so different these days…”</p><p class="Preference">“I guess you Kwamis <em>do</em> have limits!” Dan observed, chuckling. “Eh, you couldn’t make it <em>too</em> easy on us, could you? Wouldn’t be as much fun that way!”</p><p class="Preference">Pablo shrugged. “We will just have to make some stops and hope we get lucky.”</p><hr/><p>The first several sites they visited, they barely got out of the car before Mettli frowned, shook her head, and they left. As they drove, Marinette found the scenery starting to run together. At first she spent the time working on tweaking the designs she had sketched out the day before, but she soon grew bored with that. Adrien had long since been lulled to sleep by the gentle motion of the car. Eventually, Marinette leaned her head on his shoulder, put her hand on his chest, and fell asleep.</p><p class="Preference">She was awakened finally when Julia shook her shoulder and muttered, “I think we found it. Mettli recognizes the rock formation here.”</p><p class="Preference">Marinette nudged Adrien awake before stumbling out of the van herself. They were standing near the base of a cliff, alongside a slowly-flowing river. Across the river was another cliff, with a trail snaking up the side to the bluffs above. Scrub grasses with small flowers just starting to bloom poked out from between the rocks all down the cliff walls.</p><p class="Preference">Mettli looked pensive as she flitted up and down the bank on their side of the river, muttering quietly. She stopped to look at the cliff wall near the roadway they had followed in, tapped on it a couple times, and said, “This is it. My holder’s home was right here, about a meter from the cliff.”</p><p class="Preference">Dan moved forward, scanned the area indicated, and tested it with his foot. He glanced back at Pablo, who scanned the cliffs above them and nodded.</p><p class="Preference">“Rexx, Rumble the ground!” Dan roared, and was immediately engulfed in green-brown light. Marinette blinked away the spots in her eyes to see Dino Dan, wearing a dark brown cowboy hat, green shirt, brown vest and pants, and black boots. A black bandana covered the lower half of his face. A closer look at his vest revealed a pattern of scales in different shades of brown along the front and a line of sharp studs running down the back. He unfastened the lasso from his belt, swung it around above his head, and stepped into the middle of the area Mettli had indicated. When the loop around his head had reached about six meters in diameter, he called, “Dino-Quake!” At the same time he stomped his foot and allowed the lasso loop to drop to the ground.</p><p class="Preference">The ground inside the lasso shivered and shifted as though passing through a sieve. The top few centimeters of soil slid away, leaving a solid stone slab behind. A ring of stones forming a circle four meters in diameter showed where a dwelling had once stood. Within the ring Marinette saw a number of shaped stones as well as shards of pottery and a woven basket. The ground stopped shaking as Dino Dan relaxed. Muttering, “Rexx, Settle the earth,” he de-transformed.</p><p class="Preference">Mettli dropped down to look through the pottery, picked up one piece, and flew over to Julia. “See!” she squeaked. “It’s the same pattern!”</p><p class="Preference">John held out his hand and accepted the shard. After examining it closely, he pulled out his phone, frowned at something, and said, “The black on white pattern of this piece suggests that it was actually made by the Pueblo Indians. Perhaps our next stop should be Mesa Verde.”</p><p class="Preference">After she climbed back into the van, Marinette pulled out a new sketchpad to draw a design for a new purse. However, as the van crept back up the roadway to the exit, they hit a bump and she scratched through that drawing. With a groan of frustration, she tore the sheet out of the sketchpad, rolled down the window, balled up the paper, and threw it under the wheels of a dark green SUV that was waiting to go down to the river.</p><hr/><p>After stopping at a Walmart to pick up supplies and driving through the night, they pulled into an overlook parking lot as the sun was just beginning to rise. As Pablo was parking the car next to a dark-green SUV, Marinette looked out in awe at the sun’s rays bathing the valley in light. She pushed the door open and followed the rest of the group toward an animal trail that disappeared into the forest, angling toward the mountains beyond.</p><p class="Preference">“There is an unexplored Pueblo settlement on the far side of the valley,” John muttered. “The rest of the settlements here are so overrun with tourists that we won’t find anything.”</p><p class="Preference">“You mean tourists like them?” Dan asked wryly, smirking at him and gesturing at the rest of the group.</p><p class="Preference">“Oh, no,” John retorted with a grin. “I mean tourists like <em>all</em> of you!”</p><p class="Preference">“Hey!”</p><p class="Preference">The morning was brisk but pleasant as they followed the overgrown trail further into the valley. A couple of times the trail almost disappeared and they had to search for where it continued. The sun was directly overhead when Julia called for a break and they ate lunch. Marinette sat down in the grass next to Adrien, who lay back and put his head in her lap.</p><p class="Preference">“So is this closer to what you wanted from your Spring Break, Kitty?” she teased, running her fingers through his hair.</p><p class="Preference">“Let’s see,” he thought aloud. “Spending time with you. Meeting new people. Doing different things. Maybe playing less video games and spending more time traveling than I would’ve expected, but…” He closed his eyes and smiled. “I would say this is just about <em>purr</em>-fect. A thousand times better than spending Spring Break in business meetings!”</p><p class="Preference">Marinette was about to respond when her eye was drawn to movement along the path back the way they had come. She furrowed her brow. This wasn’t a marked hiking trail, so no one else should have been nearby. At that moment, however, Julia waved them over to continue the hike. Marinette packed the remains of their lunch away as Adrien sat up, shouldered his backpack, and helped her to her feet. She spared a glance at the spot where she thought she had seen something, but there was nothing but shadows.</p><p class="Preference">They had hiked for another hour when Marinette, walking at the back of the group with Adrien, heard the sound of a twig breaking behind them. The sudden stiffness in Adrien’s posture showed that he had heard the same thing. Adrien squeezed her hand and held out two fingers: whoever it was, they had been following them for at least two kilometers. Marinette furtively looked up the path and gave his hand a reassuring squeeze before saying, a little louder than necessary, “I have a question for John. Be back in a second.” She let go of his hand, walked through the middle of the group, and caught up with John at the front.</p><p class="Preference">The path curved around a bend, and Marinette stepped off the path to hide behind a rocky outcropping. John raised an eyebrow at that but continued down the path. The rest of the group kept walking; Adrien smirked at her and twisted his miraculous around his finger as he passed. Once everyone was out of sight, Marinette quietly transformed and climbed to the top of the outcropping.</p><p class="Preference">It didn’t take long for her to hear soft footfalls coming down the trail. A man with dark hair and a light complexion walked around the outcropping, looking around intently. Ladybug narrowed her eyes, studying him closely. Her eye was drawn to a familiar-looking tattoo on the inside of his forearm. <em>Where have I seen that symbol before?</em> She gasped involuntarily.</p><p class="Preference">The man looked up, saw her, and stepped backward, crouching down and holding his hiking stick in front of himself defensively. Ladybug leapt down in front of him, spinning her yo-yo to the side.</p><p class="Preference">“The Ladybug!” the man gasped in English, clenching his stick tightly.</p><p class="Preference">“Why are you following us?” Ladybug demanded, also in English. Something about the man seemed familiar, but she pushed the feeling aside. She watched him closely, waiting for him to move.</p><p class="Preference">“I am only doing my duty,” he replied evenly. “I serve the balance!”</p><p class="Preference">She smirked and lashed out with her yo-yo, aiming to wrap it around his front leg. He dodged nimbly aside, shifting positions seamlessly. “Maybe you should try out for the Olympics!” she joked.</p><p class="Preference">“Our skills aren’t for something so <em>trivial</em>,” the man retorted, charging her with his stick raised.</p><p class="Preference">Ladybug sidestepped the charge and dragged her foot to trip him up. Her attacker, however, evaded the trip and struck out at her side with his stick. She ducked under the attack and aimed a punch for his gut, which he blocked with one arm before sliding away, pulling her off-balance. She caught herself with her other hand, pushed forward into a handstand, and flipped to her feet, spinning in midair to face him. He held his stick one-handed along his forearm and leapt, bringing the stick down at her head. Ladybug spun her yo-yo in a shield to catch the strike, and he immediately redirected to slide the stick in beneath her guard. With her other arm Ladybug blocked his stick and wrapped the yo-yo around his torso, trapping his arms and stick.</p><p class="Preference">“What do you want?” she growled, pulling him closer and glaring into his face.</p><p class="Preference">“This,” he replied calmly. Then without changing his expression he shifted his stick and swept her legs out from under her. Ladybug’s eyes shot wide in surprise and she loosened the yo-yo involuntarily. She fell back and struck her head against a tree. Instinctively she held her arms up to protect herself. Blinking away her confusion she pushed back to her feet to resume the fight.</p><p class="Preference">There was no one there.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0010"><h2>10. Chapter 10</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p class="Preference">“–and when I looked up, the man had disappeared!”</p><p class="Preference">Adrien frowned as Marinette finished her story – speaking in English for the others’ benefit. The pueblo was in sight above the tops of the trees. “And you are sure you recognized him?” he asked, pushing a branch aside.</p><p class="Preference">“Of course I am sure!” she insisted, waving her arms wildly. “I know I saw him somewhere!”</p><p class="Preference">“Could he have been in the airport?” Julia asked pensively.</p><p class="Preference">“Maybe? I do not know. There <em>was</em>…” Marinette’s eyes suddenly unfocused and she brushed her arm with one hand. She groaned and smacked her forehead. “The man who bumped into me. I did not see his eyes because he wore sunglasses, but I think it was the same person. I could just see the edge of the tattoo.”</p><p class="Preference">“That’s an awfully big coincidence,” Dan observed, giving her an evaluating look. “Why was he following us?”</p><p class="Preference">“He just said he serves ‘the balance,’ whatever that means.” Marinette shrugged. Adrien put his arm around her shoulders and pulled her close as they left the trees behind. In front of them, around ten meters up the side of the cliff, a row of dwellings had been carved into a recess within the sheer rock. The roadway up to the pueblo was a narrow incline cut into the rock which stretched the entire length of the cliff and switched back once halfway up. The path was only wide enough to walk single-file. On reaching the top of the path, they were standing on a wide avenue which ran in front of all the buildings and had paths branching off from it into the second line of dwellings behind the outermost row. Behind the front row, several towers stood up above the houses in front, with their tops above the valley’s trees. Adrien could imagine the first inhabitants placing watchmen atop those towers to watch for visitors or enemies.</p><p class="Preference">“We had better keep watch,” Pablo determined, leading them toward the largest dwelling. He raised an eyebrow, and Atsaa flew up to find a perch on one of the towers, near the stone ledge overhanging the pueblo. “This man who attacked Ladybug is cause for concern, but we cannot abandon our mission. We have come so far already; we have to see this through.”</p><p class="Preference">Adrien nodded, concerned, but followed the rest inside. He leaned against the doorframe, one eye on the tree line nearly a kilometer away. He could hear the wind blowing through the tops of the trees, but nothing more.</p><p class="Preference">Marinette crouched down to inspect something near the ground along the far wall. “Take a look at this,” she called. She traced her finger along a pattern of indentations. “It looks like someone carved this into the wall and then spread different-colored paint inside the lines. What do you make of it?”</p><p class="Preference">Adrien joined the others around the indicated wall, careful not to block the light from the setting sun. The wall was crisscrossed with several different carvings, including a number of animal shapes and humans. However, in the center of the wall was a carving that did not seem to have a clear animal inspiration. Marinette’s finger was still in one of the lines. It was an image of a circle bisected at an angle with a triangle set inside each half with the corners meeting in the middle.</p><p class="Preference">“What does it mean?” Adrien wondered, staring at it intently.</p><p class="Preference">Marinette looked up. “I recognize it,” she realized, giving Adrien a look of surprise. “The man following us, he–”</p><p class="Preference">She cut off and looked at the doorway, at the same moment that Adrien heard gravel shifting outside. John, who was standing closest to the door, held a finger to his lips and quietly stepped out.</p><p class="Preference">“Hello!” he called. They could hear voices speaking indistinctly outside. Adrien moved back to join Pablo standing just inside the door and peeked around the corner. John was talking to a man with dark hair and a short beard who wore a wide-brimmed hat and carried a hiking stick.</p><p class="Preference">John made a gesture encompassing the ledge they were standing on. Suddenly, the stranger lashed out at John with his stick. John leapt backward, outside the range of the attack, simultaneously shouting, “Ursaa, Waken wrath!” Adrien shaded his eyes from the tan light that covered him, and looked back to see Man-Bear. The front of his suit was tan, with a dark brown back and sides. Over his face was a black mask which formed a single piece with his headband. The headband had grown a feather which stuck up at an angle behind a pair of rounded ears that connected seamlessly to the headband.</p><p class="Preference">Man-Bear reached up to catch the stick swinging down at his head, shifted quickly to the side, released the stick, and allowed the stranger to expend all his energy into the ground. The stranger grunted, and Man-Bear spun to kick him in the chest. The stranger jumped away from the kick, retreating back toward the top of the ramp.</p><p class="Preference">Drawing a pair of hand claws from his belt, Man-Bear hurled one claw at the man like a throwing knife, but the man raised his stick and batted the claw away. It embedded in the cave wall several meters in from the edge. Man-Bear shifted the other claw to his right hand and leapt, aiming a pair of kicks at the man’s head. The man ducked the first kick and blocked the second with his stick before punching Man-Bear in the chest as he landed. With a grunt Man-Bear bent over double but looked up at the stranger and bull-rushed him, arms out.</p><p class="Preference">The stranger leapt off the avenue down to the switchback, dancing on the edge to catch his balance. Man-Bear raced down the path in pursuit, away from the dwelling where the others were waiting.</p><p class="Preference">Adrien raised his eyebrows at Marinette and made a subtle gesture with his head, to which she nodded. He quietly transformed and slipped outside. The stranger’s retreat and Man-Bear’s pursuit had taken them past their location and almost to the spot where the path curved around to return to the ground level. Cat Noir extended his staff to reach the path below them and rode the staff to the ground as an elevator, placing himself between the stranger and escape, with Man-Bear cutting him off from returning to the pueblo. Their attacker still had not noticed Cat Noir, focused as he was on defending against Man-Bear, who had just turned the corner towards him.</p><p class="Preference">“Bear-serker!” bellowed Man-Bear, lowering his head, holding his arms out, and charging his attacker. The man threw himself against the cliff wall as Man-Bear raced past, lifting his stick to strike at the back of Man-Bear’s head.</p><p class="Preference">Cat Noir flipped over the charging Man-Bear, interposed his staff to block the enemy’s stick, and forced the stick back in the opposite direction. He pulled the man off-balance as he landed on the other side of him, keeping him between Cat Noir and Man-Bear even as they switched positions.</p><p class="Preference">“How many of you miraculous users are <em>here</em>?” the man asked incredulously, stumbling near the edge as he regained his balance.</p><p class="Preference">“More than enough to handle you!” Cat Noir retorted, swinging his staff at the man’s side.</p><p class="Preference">The man held his stick to the side, blocked the staff, and transferred that momentum into a kick to Cat Noir’s head. Cat Noir ducked underneath the kick and shot his leg out to sweep the man’s planted leg out from under him. The attacker lost his footing, fell backward, and rolled down the cliff through a backward somersault before landing on his feet on the ground level. He stumbled once while trying to catch his balance, but stepped backward, spreading his legs in a firmer stance. He held his stick in front of himself defensively, his eyes darting back and forth between Cat Noir, who was still above him on the path, and Man-Bear, who had by this time reached the valley floor.</p><p class="Preference">“I take it your <em>bark</em> is worse than your bite?” Cat Noir taunted, jumping from the path, flipping twice, and angling to place himself between their attacker and the forest, cutting off that avenue of escape. He landed in a crouch, facing the man and holding his staff in front of himself. Man-Bear approached the man from the side closest to the bottom of the path. Between the two of them, they pushed him back until his back was against the cliff wall.</p><p class="Preference">At that moment the man yelped as his hiking stick was jerked out of his hands from above by a yo-yo string. He dropped into a crouch and charged at Man-Bear but was almost instantly caught in a lasso and pulled off his feet to dangle upside-down three meters off the ground.</p><p class="Preference">“You may have stopped me, but you will never stop the Dark Acolytes of the Mundane!”</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0011"><h2>11. Chapter 11</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p class="Preference">Marinette leaned against Adrien’s side, staring intently at the man who had followed them across two continents, tracked them to this unexplored pueblo, and attacked them. The group sat in a circle around the stranger, whom Dan had tied up with a rope they had bought. Atsaa hovered near the ceiling, observing the stranger closely. The rest of Kwamis all rested together near their holders’ feet. Pablo and John stood just inside the doorway, ready to block the man’s escape if he should try to run away.</p><p class="Preference">“So what should we do with this chucklehead?” Dan asked (in English), tugging the rope tight and standing up to admire his handiwork. “I could always hang him from the roof. Maybe we could use him as a piñata! Which would work best: staff, war club, or mace?”</p><p class="Preference">Marinette’s eyes shot wide open, though her concern shifted into amusement on looking closer at Dan’s face. There was a twinkle in his eye, like the one Adrien would get after telling her an especially terrible pun.</p><p class="Preference">Their prisoner retained his stoic expression. “Whatever you do to me,” he intoned, “I am a servant of the balance. The Dark Acolytes of the Mundane will restore balance to this world.”</p><p class="Preference">“You have a lot of important-sounding words there,” Dan observed. “I just wish they had some sort of <em>meaning</em> to them!”</p><p class="Preference">“What is your name?” Marinette asked, fixing the man with her best Ladybug-confident look.</p><p class="Preference">“My name is Pedro, and I am an Acolyte of the Dark Acolytes of the Mundane,” he replied.</p><p class="Preference">“Why have you been following us? Why did you attack us?” Adrien asked next, shifting in his seat and wrapping an arm around Marinette.</p><p class="Preference">“Why does a predator stalk its prey?” Pedro shrugged. “I was watching you. After our attack, the rest of the team returned to our temple. I was left behind to observe you <em>users</em> and see how you would react. Imagine my surprise when new users showed up in Lima.”</p><p class="Preference">“So you were responsible for Alan’s death?” John asked, eyes narrowing dangerously.</p><p class="Preference">“It was necessary to restore balance.”</p><p class="Preference">“You talk about balance a lot,” Julia commented. “Why?”</p><p class="Preference">“That is our purpose,” replied Pedro. His eyes lit up with the fire of passion. “The Dark Acolytes of the Mundane were founded millennia ago by the same mage who forged the miraculous and founded the Order of the Guardians of the Miraculous. The Mage had come to regret his actions. He realized that the Kwamis and the jewels were far too powerful, that their very existence threw the world out of balance. And so, the Mage forged the Dark Sword of the Mundane in secret as a weapon against the miraculous, their guardians, and their users.</p><p class="Preference">“For the first centuries of their existence, the Dark Acolytes watched the users from the shadows, observing their actions and only culling them when necessary to preserve balance. All of the miraculous and their users were in one place, so it was easy enough to keep them in line. After the fall of Atlantis, however, many of the miraculous were lost and the Acolytes followed the Guardians when they immigrated to America. Although it meant leaving behind everything they knew, the Acolytes knew that the Guardians carried such powerful miraculous that they could not be permitted to throw this new world out of balance.”</p><p class="Preference">“So it was <em>your people</em> who attacked us!?!” Atsaa demanded, dropping from the ceiling and hovering directly in front of Pedro’s head. “You slaughtered the Guardians wholesale! You cost Eagle-of-the-Wind his life!” The Kwami’s voice dropped in pitch. “I should carry you up to the stratosphere and drop you.”</p><p class="Preference">Mettli extricated herself from Tikki and Ursaa and flew up to her counterpart to pull him back. She patted his head and dragged him down to where the rest of the Kwamis sat, though Marinette could still hear a low growl emanating from Mettli’s throat.</p><p class="Preference">Marinette found her frown deepening as Pedro’s story progressed. Master Fu had yet to teach her the full history of the miraculous and the Guardians, but parts of Pedro’s account of the history contradicted her own reading from their Book of the Miraculous. The Mage was accorded great honor and respect every time he was mentioned. The Book stated that the Mage wished to give the Kwamis the ability to interact with the material world rather than remaining trapped on the spiritual plane. He did not sound like someone who would regret giving the Kwamis that opportunity.</p><p class="Preference">“You may consider that unfortunate,” Pedro replied, unperturbed, “but the Acolytes must restore balance to the world – balance which you and your kind upset.”</p><p class="Preference">Mettli’s ears perked up at this. “Are you telling me that you think <em>Kwamis</em> upset the balance of the universe?” she asked incredulously. “Do you even understand what Kwamis <em>are</em>?” She dragged Atsaa up until they were both hovering centimeters from Pedro’s face. “Kwamis are the embodiment of abstract concepts, <em>genius</em>. We are an intrinsic part of the universe. I am the Kwami of Unity; Atsaa here is the Kwami of Independence. In a sense, we represent contradicting concepts, but one cannot exist without the other. Unchecked independence leads to isolation; unchecked unity leads to a loss of individuality. Thus, we balance each other out. Tikki and Plagg – Creation and Destruction – balance each other out, too.”</p><p class="Preference">Rexx flew into the air and joined the other two. “I am a Kwami of Nature,” he supplied, “but I only embody the more durable and lasting parts of that concept; the Dragon Kwami embodies the shifting, changing aspects of Nature. Longg and I hold each other in balance as well.”</p><p class="Preference">Marinette nodded at their explanation even as she watched Pedro’s face for his reaction. The Acolyte frowned and furrowed his brow as he considered the Kwamis’ words.</p><p class="Preference">“It cannot be so simple as that,” Pedro said slowly. “Why would the Mage have created the Dark Sword of the Mundane as a weapon against the miraculous users, unless he <em>did</em> think them dangerous? Why would he have entrusted the Dark Sword to the first of his Acolytes if he did not believe in the righteousness of their cause? The miraculous disrupt the balance of the universe, and the Dark Acolytes of the Mundane must restore that balance!”</p><p class="Preference">Dan slammed his fist on the ground and pushed himself to his feet. “This debate is a waste of time,” he shouted, glaring at Pedro. “You and your people killed one of my friends and abducted another, and I am going to avenge them – one way or the other. So either you bring us to this… <em>temple</em> of yours, or I’m going to beat the information out of you and throw you off this cliff.</p><p class="Preference">Pedro stared into Dan’s eyes without flinching. “No,” he said calmly. “It doesn’t matter what you do to me; I will not betray my people.”</p><p class="Preference">Dan leaned in closer. “If you won’t help us,” he whispered ominously, a threatening tone in his voice, “then that makes you a liability.” Without taking his eyes off Pedro, he announced to the others. “I say we just leave the dead weight behind. Hogtie him and see if his friends come back for him before he dies of thirst.”</p><p class="Preference">Marinette’s jaw dropped. She raised an eyebrow at Adrien, who nodded subtly, his eyes wide. Dan was not joking around anymore. He was serious: he really would kill this Acolyte if he wouldn’t help them. Were the American Miraculous Heroes always so… violent? Or was this just because they had lost a friend? Of course, Marinette realized, when she thought Alya and Chloe had been killed… she would have gladly murdered Volpina that night, too!</p><p class="Preference">Marinette found herself standing with one hand on Dan’s shoulder, pushing him back. She had no memory of standing up, but knew that she couldn’t sit back if the Americans really <em>were</em> going to do something… unforgiveable. “You cannot just leave him to die,” she insisted, glaring at Dan fiercely. She caught a glimpse of Julia trying to hide a smile while Pablo, standing near the doorway, folded his arms and frowned. “That would just prove him right about us,” she insisted. “We need to show that we are better than them – better than this monstrous image of us that they have created.”</p><p class="Preference">“She has a point,” Julia observed, glancing over at Pablo. “These Dark Acolytes are going to keep on thinking we are the problem unless we show them that we are not what they think we are.”</p><p class="Preference">Pablo grimaced. “I hate to drag a prisoner around with us,” he admitted, “but you are both correct.” He glanced out through the doorway. “It is getting dark out. We should spend the night here, and then continue on in the morning. And since we have a prisoner now, we will need to set a watch tonight.”</p><hr/><p class="Preference">After a simple dinner, Marinette unrolled the two sleeping bags set aside for herself and Adrien. Around the dwelling, the rest of the group had already arranged their sleeping bags against the walls. Pablo and Julia had agreed to take the first watch, and set their joined sleeping bags in front of the doorway. Pedro was still sitting up against the dwelling’s wall, his knees pulled up to his chest, staring at the floor. As Marinette watched, he shivered involuntarily in the brisk nighttime air.</p><p class="Preference">“Hey,” Marinette called, startling him out of his thoughts. “Do you want a sleeping bag? We can share.”</p><p class="Preference">“You would give me a sleeping bag?” Pedro wondered, looking at her with surprise in his eyes. “Aren’t I your enemy?”</p><p class="Preference">She shrugged. “Your group may want to see me dead tomorrow, but I do not want you to freeze to death tonight.”</p><p class="Preference">“Th–thank you,” he said, dragging the sleeping bag a meter or so away. He lay it against the far inside wall, kicked off his boots, and crawled inside.</p><p class="Preference">Adrien had already gotten into the other sleeping bag. He pulled the flap up for Marinette to slip in next to him, and she wrapped her arms tightly around his chest, burying her face in his shoulder. They stayed like that for a while as Marinette’s heart rate slowed and her breathing evened out.</p><p class="Preference">“Do you think he was telling the truth?” Marinette murmured at length in French. “Do you think the sword really was created by the same mage who created the miraculous? And if he did, why?”</p><p class="Preference">Adrien frowned. “I… I don’t know, Milady. I can’t imagine that the same person who created the miraculous would turn around and reject them. How could the miraculous be bad?”</p><p class="Preference">“At the same time, how else would the Dark Sword be able to cut through a miraculous suit if it <em>wasn’t</em> created with similar magic to the miraculous?” asked Marinette. Switching to English, she rolled over to face Pedro and asked, “Why do you want to hurt us? What did we do to you?”</p><p class="Preference">Pedro stirred in his sleeping bag. “I know it can be hard for you to accept, but the miraculous are dangerous. The miraculous are unnatural. The miraculous disrupt the balance of the universe. The only way to restore the balance is to be rid of the miraculous, to stop using them. I don’t want to hurt anyone, but you won’t stop using the miraculous, will you?”</p><p class="Preference">“We have to use the miraculous,” Marinette answered. “It is all we have to stop bad people from hurting innocent people. When we fought Hawk Moth, we could never have stopped him and taken away his miraculous without our own miraculous.”</p><p class="Preference">“Wasn’t he using a miraculous to hurt people? Wasn’t he disrupting the world’s balance using a miraculous?”</p><p class="Preference">“His <em>mis</em>use of the miraculous does not make our proper use of the miraculous wrong,” replied Marinette.</p><p class="Preference">Pedro was silent for a minute, staring at them with an inscrutable expression on his face. “Miraculous disrupt the balance, and I must serve the balance,” he finally intoned, before rolling over to face the wall.</p><p class="Preference">Marinette frowned contemplatively before turning back to face Adrien. Adrien had been silent through the exchange, but when Marinette looked into his eyes, she saw him smiling tenderly at her. He rubbed her back soothingly as she leaned her forehead against his shoulder.</p><p class="Preference">“You can’t save everyone, Princess,” he whispered in French. “Some people just don’t want your help.”</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0012"><h2>12. Chapter 12</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p class="Preference">The next morning, Adrien delicately extricated himself from Marinette’s arms and slipped out of the sleeping bag. Dan was just starting to stir in his own sleeping bag, and Julia was heating water on the camp stove. A glance showed that Pedro was awake, watching them through narrowed eyes from his sleeping bag. John and Pablo, however, were nowhere to be seen.</p><p class="Preference">“They went to scout the rest of the pueblo,” Julia explained in English, seeing the question in Adrien’s eyes. “Mettli found that symbol in a few of the other buildings last night, and John had a hunch. Coffee?”</p><p class="Preference">Adrien nodded as he tied his shoes before accepting the cup she offered him, along with a granola bar. The coffee wasn’t as good as what he normally drank, but it at least helped him wake up. He groaned as he sat down on the floor, leaning back against the wall.</p><p class="Preference">“So how long have the two of you been together?” Julia asked, eyeing him curiously.</p><p class="Preference">“It depends what you mean,” replied Adrien with a smile. “We have been partners for nearly three years. We have been dating for about nine months. And we have been engaged for less than a week.”</p><p class="Preference">“Congratulations! I noticed the ring but was not sure.”</p><p class="Preference">Adrien chuckled. “It still feels unreal,” he continued. “This time last year, I had no idea who the girl I loved was. I had no idea who was under the mask. I had no idea Ladybug was one of my best friends, or that she was in love with me. And now?” He gestured toward the sleeping bag where Marinette was still asleep, head pillowed on her arms. “Here we are.”</p><p class="Preference">“You did not know each other’s identities?” wondered Julia, giving him a surprised look. “But how did you receive your miraculous?”</p><p class="Preference">Adrien shrugged. “It was in my bag one day. I did not find out until later that the Guardian had chosen me and placed it there. It was the same for Marinette. Why? How did it happen for you?”</p><p class="Preference">“A man visited my home after school one day to talk to my parents. He said I had the disposition of a miraculous holder and wanted to take me somewhere to learn. My parents agreed, and the next thing I knew I was at the temple. Pablo was the first person I met.” She smiled wistfully.</p><p class="Preference">“Were you… together… right away?” Adrien asked. “Was it destiny, since you have complementary miraculous?”</p><p class="Preference">She giggled. “Not at all,” she told him. “We did not get along at first. Our backgrounds were so different. I was homesick, and he was jealous since he had no home to which to return – his parents were killed when he was ten, and he spent a few years in foster care before the Guardian found him. In training, Pablo was always going off on his own; I wanted to spend time with people. It took him a couple years to finally open up and let me in. Even when he allowed me to get close to him, he was still wary of the others.”</p><p class="Preference">“And now look at me: running off to <em>los Estados</em> with a couple European strangers!” Águila Altísimo strode into the dwelling at that moment, chuckling gently, and de-transformed before bending over to give Julia a quick peck on the lips. He accepted a cup of coffee which he downed in a single gulp before announcing, “I spotted one of those symbols carved in the rock atop this cliff. Man-Bear is already scouting the ridge, so the rest of us will join him once we are ready.”</p><p class="Preference">Adrien glanced around at the interior of the building. They had set up camp very quickly the night before, and very few of their supplies still needed to be repacked. He crouched next to his sleeping bag and squeezed Marinette’s shoulder, and she slowly opened her eyes. “Good morning, Bug,” he whispered, handing her a cup once she sat up. “Probably another long day ahead.”</p><p class="Preference">Breakfast was a quiet and simple affair, all of them lost in thought and suspicious of their unwelcome guest. Once they had finished eating and packed, it was time to move out. Marinette, Adrien, Dan, and Pablo all transformed. Man-Bear was already waiting at the top of the cliff for them, so Águila Altísimo picked up Julia and flew her to the ridge. Dino Dan and Ladybug used their lasso and yo-yo to pull themselves to the top. That just left Cat Noir with Pedro.</p><p class="Preference">“Are you going to behave,” Cat Noir asked, eyeing the prisoner suspiciously. He pushed him out of the building ahead of him, using his staff as a prod.</p><p class="Preference">“What? Don’t you trust me?” Pedro asked, raising an eyebrow at him and turning to show his bound arms. “I’m not the bad guy here.”</p><p class="Preference">“Is there any particular reason I should?” Cat Noir retorted. He moved to grab Pedro’s collar to carry him to the ridge.</p><p class="Preference">“No, there is not.” Pedro ducked out of Cat Noir’s grip and kicked him in the gut before making a break for the path back to the forest.</p><p class="Preference">Cat Noir grunted and stifled a curse before dropping down from the avenue to the path up the cliff face. Pedro, his arms still tied behind his back, stumbled over the loose rock as he tried to run. Cat Noir strode past a discarded climbing rope toward him, slammed him into the sidewall with his staff, and grabbed his collar. “If you <em>want</em> me to let them tie you up and leave you to die, go ahead and try that again!” he growled. Without waiting for a response, he slammed his staff into the ground, pressed the control to extend it, and allowed the staff to carry them both to the top of the cliff.</p><p class="Preference">As they neared the top of the cliff, Cat Noir became aware of fighting sounds above them. He frowned. Looking around, he saw notches carved into the rock face – notches spaced apart like handholds and which looked to have been made recently. Above them, Águila Altísimo rocketed into the open sky, away from the cliff, wheeled in midair, and hurled his mace at a target near the cliff’s edge. He let out a guttural yell, held his arms in front of himself, pumped his wings, and shot back in the same direction he’d thrown the mace. Cat Noir stared after him in shock, willing the staff to move them faster.</p><p class="Preference">They reached the top of the cliff and Cat Noir jumped, shortening his staff as he did so. He and Pedro landed in the scrub grass and rolled, and as he came up to his knees, staff held up defensively, Cat Noir finally got a look at the scene around them. They were on what looked to be a grassy area bordered by trees about a kilometer from the cliff edge. Figures were running around the area. In addition to his companions, who had formed a ring around the spot where Cat Noir and Pedro had landed, there were at least a score of men wearing what looked like a camouflage uniform and wielding an assortment of weapons. Lupa Gris had transformed and was using her war club to fight a trio of men holding machetes. Ladybug was on the far side of the ring, shielding herself from someone with a rifle. Águila Altísimo dropped beside Lupa Gris, swung his mace, and sent one of her assailants rocketing backward halfway to the tree line.</p><p class="Preference">“Di-Nado!” roared Dino Dan, lashing out with his lasso and looping a spot between a half-dozen of their unknown attackers. A small tornado seemed to sprout from the spot the lasso touched, grew to engulf the closest attackers, and launched them into the air, arcing toward the forest.</p><p class="Preference">Cat Noir pushed himself up. “Friends of yours?” he asked Pedro, who was looking about with some surprise.</p><p class="Preference">Pedro shook his head. “I assure you, I have no idea what this is or who these people are,” he shouted, maneuvering himself to his feet. “The Dark Acolytes of the Mundane do not dress like this,” he insisted. “They do not use firearms!”</p><p class="Preference">“You will have to forgive me if I do not take your word for it,” retorted Cat Noir dubiously. He held his staff up in both hands and surveyed the battlefield. His eye was drawn to a blur of motion and, without hesitation, he threw himself at Pedro, knocking him to the ground. The throwing knife struck Cat Noir in the shoulder and ricocheted away to spark off one of the rocks near the cliff edge.</p><p class="Preference">Pedro looked up at Cat Noir in surprise. “You…”</p><p class="Preference">At that moment, Cat Noir turned away as someone shouted a challenge. The biggest man in the attacking force had sidestepped Man-Bear’s charge and raced toward where Cat Noir and Pedro lay. He leveled a shotgun at them and fired. Cat Noir had his staff up and spinning without a moment to spare, as their attacker emptied a dozen shells into his improvised shield.</p><p class="Preference">Cat Noir sprang to his feet as the man swung his now-empty shotgun like a club. He parried the blow, sidestepped, and tripped the man as he stumbled past. The man fell to the ground with a grunt, and Cat Noir jerked the shotgun out of his hands and threw it over the cliff.</p><p class="Preference">Lupa Gris shouted, “They do not have miraculous!” Then she stepped back, looked up into the sky, and Howled, long and loud.</p><p class="Preference">It was as if new energy had rushed into him. Cat Noir felt a rush of adrenaline course through his body. In that moment, he felt like he could do anything! He quivered with excitement. Around him, he could see the same transformation overtaking the rest of the heroes, as well. Man-Bear had fallen back a step when the big man broke past him; now, his bear claws flashed in the sunlight as he wrenched the guns out of two men’s hands, spun around, and smacked both men in the head with their own guns, laying them out cold. Ladybug wrapped her yo-yo around the legs of the man directly in front of her, lifted him into the air, and slammed him to the ground so hard it knocked the pair closest to him to their knees.</p><p class="Preference">A group of their attackers had regrouped near the trees closest to Ladybug, and she hadn’t noticed yet; she was looking in a different direction. Cat Noir raced to her position, planted his staff, and vaulted over her head. He landed and brought his staff up to shield them an instant before the tree line came alive with gunfire. Cat Noir stood his ground, shielding them both, until he heard a rumbling sound behind them.</p><p class="Preference">Dino Dan landed right next to Cat Noir and shouted, “Dino-Quake!” He stomped his foot, and a line of ground in front of them raised up into a berm shoulder high. Cat Noir ducked behind it for cover.</p><p class="Preference">Ladybug dropped down next to him and called, “Lucky Charm.” She reached out and grabbed the flare gun that appeared next to her hand. Immediately she leaned away from the berm, pointed the flare gun over it, and launched a flare. The flare exploded in a shower of sparks which fell into the dry brush on the edge of the forest.</p><p class="Preference">Cat Noir gave her a confused look.</p><p class="Preference">“Wait for it…” she whispered.</p><p class="Preference">Cat Noir strained his ears, and presently he heard, over the sporadic gunfire, the sound of flames crackling. The gunfire stopped abruptly and he peeked over the berm to see a small group of their surviving attackers retreating further into the forest, away from the fire starting to lick the closest trees. “Huh,” he commented, giving Ladybug an impressed look. “So the plan is to <em>smoke</em> them out?”</p><p class="Preference">She giggled. “I hoped that might convince them to <em>leaf</em>!”</p><p class="Preference">Dino Dan looked down at them skeptically. “You <em>do</em> realize that still leaves us with a forest fire between us and the objective, right?”</p><p class="Preference">Ladybug scoffed and threw the flare gun into the air, shouting, “Miraculous Ladybug!” The berm disappeared, the fire went out, and all the damage from their fight was repaired.</p><p class="Preference">“Neat trick,” Dino Dan observed.</p><p class="Preference">Dino Dan, Ladybug, and Cat Noir walked over to the other heroes, who had gathered around one of the gunmen who had been stuck near the cliff on the wrong side of the fire and unable to escape. The prisoner glared up at them with rage. He had lost his weapon, however, and could do nothing, hemmed in as he was with the heroes in front of him and the cliff behind.<b></b></p><p class="Preference">“Who are you, and what do you want?” Ladybug demanded.</p><p class="Preference">“Just someone looking for the same thing you are looking for,” the prisoner replied evasively.</p><p class="Preference">“And what is that?” asked Águila Altísimo, looking him over appraisingly.</p><p class="Preference">“A sword that than kill miraculous users.”</p><p class="Preference">Cat Noir’s eyes shot open wide at that. “Why would you want something like that?”</p><p class="Preference">“Why do you think?” the prisoner scoffed. “My employer wants it to kill miraculous users, of course.”</p><p class="Preference">“And who is this employer?” demanded Ladybug.</p><p class="Preference">“Someone who would kill me if I revealed his name,” the man replied ominously. “In fact, he would probably kill me just for being captured so…” With that, he leapt backward off the cliff.</p><p class="Preference">Ladybug and Cat Noir both ran forward to stop him, but were too late. By the time they reached the cliff edge, he had already struck the ground below.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>This is the first time Lupa Gris has actually used her active ability in the story, and I think it requires some explanation. Like the Butterfly and Peafowl, the Wolf Miraculous has both active and passive abilities. The Wolf’s passive ability is to sense nearby (activated) miraculous. Its active ability is “Howl,” and it is activated when she howls (as opposed to just saying the word). Howl gives a boost in energy and strength to any nearby miraculous users – essentially an adrenaline rush. That’s why she didn’t use it against Cat Noir at the beginning of the story: it would have benefited him just as much as her. The Wolf’s Howl is also (at least in part) what enabled Eagle-of-the-Wind to withstand unifying five miraculous simultaneously against the Dark Acolytes – until the strain killed him, that is!</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0013"><h2>13. Chapter 13</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p class="Preference">Marinette stared down the cliff in shock at the place where their attacker had landed. What kind of person could evoke such loyalty, such fear, from his followers? She didn’t protest as Adrien took her hand, wrapped an arm around her shoulders, and pulled her away from the edge, back toward where the others were waiting. “As bad as it is for the Dark Acolytes of the Mundane to have a weapon that can hurt us… we can’t let these people get their hands on it,” she whispered.</p><p class="Preference">“They won’t get it,” Adrien promised. “We can do this, together.”</p><p class="Preference">Pablo looked them down and nodded. “We cannot let our guard down,” he said in English. “Whoever those men were, they did not go far. They will be back. So we need to be ready.”</p><p class="Preference">“At least two of us should be transformed from here on,” Julia suggested, raising an eyebrow at Pablo meaningfully.</p><p class="Preference">Pablo nodded, transformed, and turned to John, who followed suit. “Fly high,” he muttered, and leapt into the air as his wings appeared. He flew around them in widening circles as he gained altitude until he was close to a kilometer off the ground, far above the tallest of the trees. “I see no sign of them,” he called down. “The path looks clear.”</p><p class="Preference">Man-Bear led the way as the group entered the forest, following a lightly-worn path that led into the forest toward a mountain that rose in the distance. The top of the mountain was white with snow, reaching above the timber line. As the group entered the forest, Marinette looked closer and saw a copy of the Dark Acolyte symbol – the bisected circle enclosing two triangles – carved into the bark of the closest tree. At that altitude the trees did not grow as tall as they had in the valley, but they still grew close together, making it difficult for Marinette to see very far in any direction. Adrien’s arm around her shoulders tightened as he held her closer. Pedro walked ahead of them, and Marinette could see Adrien’s eyes drifting back to him every few seconds, wary that he might make another escape attempt. Joining the American Miraculous Heroes on this expedition had seemed like the only available option while they were in Lima: she and Adrien had the information about the Dark Acolytes’ existence, and they were placed in a position to help them. And yet, now that they were drawing closer to what had to be the Dark Acolytes’ temple, she realized just how little they actually knew.</p><p class="Preference">Who were these people who had attacked them? Why would they want to kill miraculous holders? Marinette scanned the forest around them warily. With every branch that rustled in the light breeze, she expected someone to jump out and attack them.</p><p class="Preference">Pedro abruptly stopped walking, and Marinette stumbled to catch herself and keep from knocking him over. Pedro was looking around carefully, an intense look in his eyes. He frowned and blew out a frustrated breath. “Don’t take another step,” he called. Man-Bear froze in his tracks and turned to stare at the prisoner in confusion. “The first booby trap on the trail is about two feet directly in front of your right foot.”</p><p class="Preference">“What is it?”Marinette asked, arching an eyebrow.</p><p class="Preference">“It’s a pressure plate,” Pedro replied calmly. “When someone steps on it, the path collapses for twenty feet in either direction. And anyone standing on the path falls ten feet into a pit of spikes.”</p><p class="Preference">“So what do we do?” Man-Bear growled.</p><p class="Preference">“Well, you <em>could</em> turn back,” answered Pedro. “Otherwise?” He shrugged.</p><p class="Preference">Marinette glanced at Tikki and Plagg, who phased through the ground beneath their feet. Tikki emerged a minute later and squeaked, “He’s telling the truth: there is a pit right beneath you. Plagg is going to see how far it goes.</p><p class="Preference">“Why did you tell us?” Adrien asked, narrowing his eyes at Pedro.</p><p class="Preference">Pedro shrugged. “You saved my life; I just saved yours. Now we’re even.”</p><p class="Preference">Plagg flew back a moment later and reported, “The pit ends about ten meters that way, and there is a pressure plate where he said. If you stay on the path you can’t miss it, but if you go into the woods by that tree and then return to the path you’ll be fine.”</p><p class="Preference">“Are there any other booby traps we should know about?” Adrien asked Pedro as they walked through the woods to avoid the pressure plate. Pedro simply gave him an unaffected look.</p><p class="Preference">“He said this was the ‘<em>first</em>’ booby trap, so there probably are some more,” Marinette observed wryly. “We should have the Kwamis scout ahead for us.”</p><p class="Preference">Julia nodded in agreement and glanced at Mettli and Rexx, both of whom jumped into the air. The four Kwamis spread out in all directions around the group. They continued walking – slowly now, looking in all directions to search for possible hazards. The trail they were following angled upward and the trees began to thin as they neared the mountain. In the distance, far to their left, Marinette heard a tremendous <em>crash</em>.</p><p class="Preference">“What was that?” she wondered, turning toward the source of the noise.</p><p class="Preference">“Do you think the booby traps are only on the <em>path</em>?” replied Pedro, shrugging. “It sounds like whoever ambushed us on top of the cliff just found that out the hard way. And good riddance, too.”</p><p class="Preference">“So how many of these booby traps are there for us to worry about?” Adrien asked.</p><p class="Preference">“At least one,” came the enigmatic answer.</p><p class="Preference">“Well <em>that</em> was helpful,” Marinette muttered, eliciting a laugh from Adrien.</p><p class="Preference">Around lunchtime they came to a fork in the trail. Both paths curved around and turned north to climb the mountain about half a kilometer from the fork. The forest appeared almost identical in both directions. The same Dark Acolyte symbol had been carved into a tree 100 meters in either direction.</p><p class="Preference">“What do you see?” Marinette called up to Águila Altísimo, who was still flying above them.</p><p class="Preference">“I see nothing,” he replied, landing beside them. “The forest looks identical from the air in both directions.”</p><p class="Preference">“Maybe it doesn’t matter which way we go,” Dan commented with a shrug.</p><p class="Preference">At that moment Rexx tried to fly up the path to their left and seemed to bounce off of an invisible barrier. Tikki tried the same with the path to their right, with the same result. Águila Altísimo tried to walk through the barrier, but was stopped at the same spot where the Kwamis met resistance. All the Kwamis attempted to fly down either path, and were unable to penetrate the barrier: they could not phase through it, and the barrier extended below the ground such that they could not phase through the ground to see beyond it. Finally, after Águila Altísimo de-transformed, Atsaa tried to fly <em>over</em> the forest and enter from the air but could not fly down into the forest.</p><p class="Preference">“I suppose this is the second booby trap?” Marinette asked Pedro, arching an eyebrow. “Mind helping us?”</p><p class="Preference">Pedro shook his head. “I paid my debt,” he answered. “You pick a way, and I will follow.”</p><p class="Preference">Marinette accepted a sandwich from Adrien and ate it mechanically, forcing herself to think through the problem. “I think I need to try Lucky Charm,” she decided after finishing her lunch.</p><p class="Preference">“Will it work on this?” Adrien wondered.</p><p class="Preference">“Only one was to find out,” Marinette replied, transforming. “Lucky Charm!” she called, reaching up to catch… a lighter. “What do I do with this?” she muttered, looking around the clearing intently. Finally, her eyes stopped on Dan. “So Dino-Man…” she began, “when Rexx said he balances Longg… did that mean you have three powers, too? And is one of them fire-related?”</p><p class="Preference">Dan looked at her in confusion. “Yes and yes,” he replied. “Why?”</p><p class="Preference">“I need you to try to shoot fire down both trails,” she told him.</p><p class="Preference">“Okay, but I fail to see what this will do.” He stood up and transformed before walking over to where the trail split. He sized it up for a moment, took a deep breath, stomped his foot, and shouted, “In-Di-no!” A crack in the earth shot out in both directions from his foot. The crack extended about twenty meters in each direction before it stopped and split open at the end. Lava began oozing out of each end of the crack, spreading out from the crack and pouring into the forest. In both directions, the trees began to burn, going up in flames like matches.</p><p class="Preference">“You must really like forest fires. What exactly did that prove?” Dino Dan demanded, watching his handiwork.</p><p class="Preference">“Wait,” Ladybug told him, holding a hand up. She thought for a minute. “Can you create a horizontal tornado and change the direction it spins?” He nodded. “Do that, and point it at the two fires.”</p><p class="Preference">Dino Dan complied, spinning his lasso vertically and calling, “Di-Nado.” A cyclone formed in the space within the lasso, blowing toward the path to the left and sucking air from the right. The trees in either direction moved correctly, corresponding to the wind. However, they could not smell the smoke from the fire to the right. Dino Dan reversed the spin of his lasso, changing the tornado direction, and smoke immediately began billowing from the pathway to the left.</p><p class="Preference">“That is the correct direction,” Ladybug announced. “The right path is an illusion.” She threw the lighter in the air, and Miraculous Ladybug extinguished the flames and repaired the forest.</p><p class="Preference">Without hesitating, Adrien walked down the left-hand path, Plagg sitting on his shoulder. He was visible through the barrier, but Plagg was pushed off his shoulder as he passed through. Adrien stuck his head back through. “Everything is fine down this path, but now how do the Kwamis come with us?”</p><p class="Preference">“There must be some way for the miraculous to get through this barrier with the Kwamis,” John noted. “Otherwise, they wouldn’t have taken the Alpaca Miraculous with them after killing Alan.”</p><p class="Preference">“The Dark Acolytes think miraculous should never be used, right?” Julia asked. “So maybe the miraculous cannot be <em>in</em> use. Mettli, I renounce you.” She removed her earrings as Mettli was sucked back into them, and placed the earrings in her pocket. Then she walked through the barrier, took the earrings out of her pocket, and put them back on. Mettli reappeared.</p><p class="Preference">“I guess we know what to do,” John commented, removing his headband and following suit.</p><p class="Preference">Once they had all made it through the barrier with their Kwamis, they resumed the hike, continuing to follow the trail. The barrier around the forest prevented Pablo from flying above the trees, so he continued walking beside them.</p><p class="Preference">They reached the edge of the forest after another hour of walking, only to find a gaping chasm barring their path. Across the chasm – about 100 meters away – they could see a cave with a small opening barely larger than a person. The others all looked at Pablo expectantly; he frowned and shook his head. “I do not think I can fly over there; I do not see a place to land,” he told them.</p><p class="Preference">Marinette looked at the chasm and everything on their side of it thoughtfully as Tikki flew across to take a closer look at the cave entrance. Tikki flew back and announced, “The tunnel isn’t very long, and there’s a ledge that runs right through it. But there’s nothing to secure a rope to.”</p><p class="Preference">Nodding, Marinette said, “I have an idea, but I need everyone’s weapons to make it work.” Once the others had complied, Ladybug took one of Man-Bear’s hand claws and used it to hold Águila Altísimo’s mace and Lupa Gris’s war club – with the handles extended slightly – in a “V” shape at one end of Cat Noir’s staff. With her yo-yo she lashed the contraption securely, running the string through the strap on the mace’s handle. Then she tied Dino Dan’s lasso to the war club handle. While Águila Altísimo and Lupa Gris held the makeshift bridge steady with the free ends of the lasso and yo-yo, Cat Noir extended the staff and Ladybug guided it across the chasm. The staff settled on the ledge inside the tunnel with a definite thud, and the others tied off the yo-yo and lasso to trees on their side of the chasm. Single-file, the heroes and their prisoner carefully made their way across the bridge.</p><p class="Preference">Once they were on the other side, the heroes all de-transformed and the bridge components disappeared. As they walked through the tunnel toward the light showing the other end only twenty meters away, Julia whispered to Marinette, “Are all of your plans that complicated?”</p><p class="Preference">“Only the ones that work,” Adrien called out, chuckling.</p><p class="Preference">They emerged from the tunnel into a brightly-lit valley rimmed on all sides by sheer rock walls. Grass and cultivated fields grew all around, but no one was visible. Marinette frowned as she looked around. “I thought there would be… something… someone… here,” she said. She glanced over at Pedro, who had a calm expression on his face – one that did not reach his eyes. Marinette narrowed her eyes. Pedro’s gaze shifted to a spot near the center of the valley.</p><p class="Preference">“Tikki, Spots on!” she shouted, leaping to the front of the group mid-transformation and whipping out her yo-yo the instant it materialized. She spun it into a shield a moment before a dozen arrows appeared out of thin air forty meters in front of them, deflected off the makeshift shield, and embedded in the ground at her feet. Lights flashed around her as the others transformed, and in seconds the ring of heroes was surrounded by a small army in black robes that seemed to appear from nowhere.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0014"><h2>14. Chapter 14</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“Plagg, Claws out!” Adrien shouted, wheeling to his left and bringing his staff up defensively. Unknown figures in dark robes appeared in front of him as though passing through a curtain. He could see the fields behind them, and then people appeared. <em>This must be some sort of protection like the force field in the forest! They must have something here to guard… But they can see us through this field, and we can’t see them.</em></p><p>Cat Noir blocked a staff whistling at his head from the nearest assailant. He redirected the strike into the ground, and in the same motion kicked the man in the chest, just over a gold badge with the Dark Acolytes’ symbol. The man fell backward, tumbling head-over-heels, and collapsed on his back motionless. Behind him, Cat Noir could hear the sounds of the other heroes transforming and fighting. A gust of air blew his hair as Águila Altísimo took flight. Cat Noir’s enhanced hearing picked up a distinct <em>twang</em> from the hidden center of the valley, an instant before a volley of arrows appeared, arcing toward Águila Altísimo. On instinct, Cat Noir extended his staff a little further and threw it in the air by one end, spinning it end over end. The staff cut through the arrows like a propeller, blocking and deflecting all but one. Águila Altísimo swung his mace at the last one, sending it careening back to the ground.</p><p>Cat Noir had no time to reclaim his staff, however. The battlefield condensed down to nothing more than his immediate surroundings. A pair of Acolytes leapt at him, swinging their quarterstaffs from opposite directions. He stepped forward between his two attackers, ducked under their staffs, turned, and tripped the one behind him. He punched the one in front in the gut and wrenched the staff out of his hands, then spun around and slammed the other Acolyte into the ground, holding the staff in both hands. He caught the staff that had flown out of that man’s hands as he tripped, holding one staff in each hand. Raising his left staff to block the trio in front of him, he swung with the right, dispatching the first of the new group of attackers. The other two retreated, and Cat Noir pursued them up to the point where they vanished from view. Although the staffs in his hands could pass through the barrier, his hand could not.</p><p>“Cataclysm!” he shouted, punching the barrier with his Cataclysm-infused fist. Cat Noir was flung backward by the explosive blast, slamming into the ground. Looking back at where he had struck, Cat Noir could see the same image of cultivated fields – except right where he had punched, where a fist-sized hold granted him a view of a stone wall about ten meters beyond the barrier. “All of that? For <em>nothing</em>?” he groaned, pushing himself back to his feet.</p><p>A new figure appeared from behind the barrier wearing crimson robes and wielding a hand-and-a-half sword. The sword’s handle was gilded in red-gold, but the blade was black. Cat Noir muttered a low curse as the new attacker spotted him and approached. He held up the two quarterstaffs in front of himself and took a defensive stance. “You want to fight?” he called. “See how you handle Destruction!”</p><p>The newcomer laughed mirthlessly. “Do you think a couple of sticks can protect you?” he mocked. “I have trained for decades to fight your kind. And I wield a weapon designed to destroy those who would unbalance the world with the unnatural power of miraculous! The Chief Acolyte can face your meager Destruction, <em>Miraculous user</em>!”</p><p>Cat Noir ducked the first swing from the Dark Sword, spun around, and struck the Chief Acolyte across the back with both quarterstaffs. The Chief Acolyte stumbled and fell forward, but caught himself on one hand, rolled through a one-handed cartwheel, and flipped back to his feet, twisting around to face Cat Noir, who had pursued. Cat Noir swung again with his left hand, and the Chief Acolyte dodged, bringing up the sword to strike at Cat Noir’s right side. Cat Noir, however, parried the blow with the other quarterstaff, catching the cross guard and deflecting the blade away from himself.</p><p>The Chief Acolyte lunged forward, and Cat Noir sidestepped and parried. The point of the sword struck his quarterstaff and cut straight through the wood. Cat Noir swung the other quarterstaff at the Chief Acolyte’s head, and the Chief Acolyte blocked with the sword, cutting that staff in half. Cat Noir raised what was left of the staffs to defend himself from the counterstrike he knew was coming.</p><p>The ground rumbled under his feet. “Dino-Quake!” Dino Dan shouted, and a seam in the ground appeared less than a meter in front of Cat Noir, separating him from the Chief Acolyte. The gap widened, and the Chief Acolyte backed away. Cat Noir’s eyes darted around the battlefield, searching for his staff.</p><p>“Kitty!” Like music to his ears, a familiar voice sang out from his right, and he looked over just in time to catch the staff that Ladybug had thrown his way.</p><p>He extended his staff slightly and vaulted over the heads of the other combatants to land at Ladybug’s side where she was surrounded by Acolytes, arriving just in time to block a pair of blows aimed at her back. “Thank you, Milady,” he commented. “I would hate to see anyone <em>bat-on</em> you when I can protect you!”</p><p>“Kitty,” she groaned, smirking at him, “I hoped the language barrier would cut down on the puns!”</p><p>“Nope,” he replied, spinning his staff as a shield against another volley of arrows, “though it might make the puns a little more a-<em>paw</em>-lling!”</p><p>She giggled and spun around, lashing out with her yo-yo to entrap one of the Acolytes in front of Cat Noir. At the same time, Cat Noir leapt into the air, laying out horizontal and poking the Acolyte who was about to smack Ladybug’s back. He dropped to the ground an instant before Ladybug lifted her prisoner off the ground and spun him around in a tight circle, scything through the attackers encircling them.</p><p>Cat Noir’s eye was drawn to a flash of mottled green near the tunnel through which they had entered the valley, and he looked up to see a dozen men in combat boots and camouflage running out of the tunnel. The man at the front of the group, a head taller than the rest, looked at Cat Noir and Ladybug, leveled a rifle at them, and fired. Cat Noir interposed himself between Ladybug and the newcomers and spun his staff as a shield, protecting himself and Ladybug. The rest, however, were not so lucky.</p><p>The gunmen opened fire, mowing through all of the combatants indiscriminately. Acolytes fell on all sides. Lupa Gris was struck in the side and fell to the ground with a cry of surprise. Dino Dan used Di-Nado to send a tornado through their ranks, trapping a couple of the newcomers in the funnel and blowing them over the crater walls and out of the valley entirely. Águila Altísimo dropped from the sky and landed next to Lupa Gris, using his wings to shield her. He helped her into a sitting position before taking her war club and disappearing into the crowd of camo-clad gunmen with a roar of fury.</p><p>Lupa Gris shook her head and held a hand to her side where the bullet had struck her, wincing at the pain. Then she leaned back and Howled. At once Cat Noir felt adrenaline surge through him. His miraculous, which had been beeping incessantly, stopped beeping; a glance showed that his Cataclysm had recharged. A glance around the battlefield showed that the Chief Acolyte had engaged in a duel with a pair of the newcomers, and he immediately leapt into the fray.</p><p>Cat Noir ducked a rifle swung at his head and kicked the man holding it in the knee. He fell to the ground with a scream of agony, and Cat Noir stomped on the rifle, bending its barrel and breaking the stock. Meanwhile, the Chief Acolyte had already dispatched the other man, slicing clean through his machete with the Dark Sword. He looked up at Cat Noir, raised an eyebrow, and said, “This doesn’t change anything.” And then he struck, a whistling slash from the top right toward Cat Noir’s head.</p><p>Cat Noir raised his staff to block the blow. Sparks flew as he redirected the blade down the length of his staff and pushed it aside before it reached his hands. He spun around and elbowed the Chief Acolyte in the chest before kicking his foot back to catch the Chief Acolyte’s leg. The Chief Acolyte sidestepped the kick, caught Cat Noir’s foot with his leg, and tripped him up, sending Cat Noir tumbling to the ground. Cat Noir tucked and rolled through the tumble, flipped to his feet, and brought his staff up to parry the next swipe with no time to spare. Cat Noir counterattacked with a lunge, and the Chief Acolyte parried, following the parry with a lunge of his own. Cat Noir dodged, but not quickly enough; the tip of the blade nicked his forearm, drawing a line of blood through his suit. Back and forth they dueled, neither gaining an advantage, until Dino Dan used In-Di-no to open a lava pit to their left. Cat Noir kicked the Chief Acolyte toward the lava, but the Chief Acolyte danced around the edge before leaping to attack Dino Dan.</p><p>Dino Dan threw his lasso to loop it around the Chief Acolyte’s torso, but the Chief Acolyte cut through the rope. In Dino Dan’s moment of surprise, the Chief Acolyte leapt, bringing his sword down toward his head.</p><p>“Bear-serker!” Man-Bear roared, brandishing his hand claws. He charged past Dino Dan and caught the Chief Acolyte, still in midair, with a head butt to the chest. He slashed through the Chief Acolyte’s robes, drawing three long, bloody scratches across his chest, before the Chief Acolyte could retreat far enough to defend himself with the Dark Sword. Man-Bear pursued him relentlessly, slashing with both hand claws. The Chief Acolyte dove to the side and Man-Bear followed, jumping on top of him. The Chief Acolyte rolled to his back and held the Dark Sword up in front of himself. The Sword cut straight through Man-Bear’s chest and out his back, even as Man-Bear impaled the Chief Acolyte on his hand claws. Neither moved again.</p><p>“No!” Dino Dan raced toward the spot where they had fallen.</p><p>Lupa Gris’ eyes widened and held out a hand. “Dan! ¡Para! It–”</p><p>An Acolyte who had just emerged from the protective field was covered in yellow light. When Cat Noir’s eyes had adjusted, the Acolyte wore tight-fitting robes of light yellow ending at the waist over white pants. He shouted, “Alpackify,” and threw a yellow hoop that looped around Dino Dan.</p><p>Dino Dan stopped midstride and his eyes unfocused. He stood with his arms at his sides, swaying a little. Then he slowly walked toward the new miraculous user. He touched a pair of men with rifles, who followed him a moment later. The miraculous user pointed at Cat Noir, and Dino Dan turned and ran towards Cat Noir. He stomped his foot and shouted, “Di-Na-do!” A funnel cloud grew out of the ground where he had stomped and barreled toward Cat Noir.</p><p>Cat Noir dove to the side, slamming his staff into the ground and tying his tail to it as an anchor. The tornado picked him up, but the anchor held. Cat Noir tumbled around, head-over-heels, inside the tornado as Dino Dan approached. When Dino Dan stepped inside the funnel, Cat Noir timed and kicked him in the head as he was whipped past. The tornado fizzled out, and Dino Dan shook his head slowly. Cat Noir landed in a crouch and detached his tail from his staff. He held the staff in front of himself defensively and narrowed his eyes at Dino Dan.  Dino Dan finally shook his head one last time and charged Cat Noir with a roar. Cat Noir sidestepped and jammed his staff between Dino Dan’s legs as he ran past, sending him tumbling to the ground. Dino Dan was up and coming at him again instantly, and Cat Noir ducked under a couple punches, punching him in the stomach. He dove to the side to avoid Dino Dan slamming both fists into his head.</p><p>Cat Noir spun to his feet and whirled around to see Dino Dan charging him again. To the side he could see Pedro standing next to the bodies of John and the Chief Acolyte, holding the Dark Sword in one hand, staring at the Acolyte using what Cat Noir could only assume was the Alpaca Miraculous. Pedro looked down at the bodies at his feet, at the sword, and then back at the “Alpacolyte.” Then he stabbed the Alpacolyte through the chest with the Dark Sword. The man collapsed to the ground. At the same time, Dino Dan dropped to his hands and knees, gasping for breath.</p><p>“Gah!” Dino Dan grunted, grabbing fistfuls of grass with both hands. “I never <em>could</em> resist Alpackify… gets me every time. Hope I didn’t hurt you, Kitten Kid.”</p><p>Cat Noir put a hand on his shoulder and squeezed it. “Please,” he told him, smirking. “I think <em>I</em> hurt <em>you</em> worse than <em>you</em> hurt <em>me</em>!”</p><p>Dino Dan de-transformed and collapsed to the ground, rolling over onto his back and closing his eyes. “Don’t mind me,” he mumbled. “I’m just… taking a nap.”</p><p>Around them, the sounds of battle were dying away. Cat Noir walked over to where Pedro was still standing over the three bodies – the Chief Acolyte, John, and the Alpacolyte. Pedro’s hands were shaking and his breathing shallow. “I–I can’t… what did I do?” he was whispering. “But… why were they <em>using</em> it??? <em>How</em> could they use it??? We swore to <em>end</em> the abuse of miraculous!” He jumped as Cat Noir put a hand on his arm.</p><p>Cat Noir jumped back, out of range of the Dark Sword which Pedro had lifted instinctively. “What happened?” Cat Noir asked, holding up his hands in a gesture of peace. The number of combatants around them continued to drop as the remaining Acolytes retreated behind their protective barrier and the other group disappeared back through the tunnel.</p><p>“He… he was using a miraculous,” Pedro whispered, still staring at the body at his feet. “But the Dark Acolytes of the Mundane are sworn to eschew the use of miraculous, lest we become no better than the miraculous abusers. He was using a miraculous. How… <em>how could he use a miraculous?</em>”</p><p>“Miraculous are tools,” Cat Noir told him, “meant to be used to preserve balance in the universe. In the right hands, they are powerful tools for good. In the wrong hands, they are equally-powerful weapons for great evil. John… he used his miraculous for good, to help people and protect his friends. This guy here?” He kicked the dead Acolyte.</p><p>“Juan,” Pedro supplied. “He was the Second… the Chief’s top lieutenant. For <em>him</em> to use a miraculous… the Chief must have known… But what have I done???” The Dark Sword fell from his slack grip.</p><p>“Thank you,” Cat Noir told him. “You saved me from having to hurt my friend. But now…” He picked up the Dark Sword. “Cata–” Suddenly he stopped and frowned, staring at the sword in his hand. The Dark Sword of the Mundane was a powerful weapon – he couldn’t deny that fact. It had already been used to kill two of the American Miraculous Heroes. In the future timeline, it had been used to kill future-Ladybug. He could still feel the stickiness on his forearm from where the sword had cut him. Before all of this had started, he had fully intended to turn the sword to dust with Cataclysm the moment he touched it. And yet…</p><p>Cat Noir looked down at the other body, the Acolyte Pedro had identified as “Juan.” Not every miraculous user was necessarily good. Some actively fought <em>against</em> the idea of balance. Some miraculous did fall into the hands of evil people – his father and Nathalie were only two examples of people who abused miraculous for their own purposes. Could there be others? If there were, how would they fight against them? Sure, miraculous weapons were effective against miraculous suits, but not everyone had miraculous weapons. If Anansi or the Owl had ever tried to fight Hawk Moth, neither of them would have had a weapon that could harm him.</p><p>Perhaps there was a use for the Dark Sword of the Mundane. Perhaps it could even make up for the blood of heroic miraculous users that it had shed across millennia and continents by giving the heroes another tool against those who would abuse miraculous for their own purposes.</p><p>Cat Noir glanced down at John’s body and did a double-take. “What happened to the Bear Miraculous?” he asked, looking up at Pedro in shock.</p><p>Pedro replied, “One of those guys with the guns ran up here at the same time I did; maybe he took it.”</p><p>Cat Noir cursed. “But who–?”</p><p>Suddenly, Dan shouted something from the other side of the field. A half-dozen of the unknown gunmen were racing away from him as Águila Altísimo dropped from the sky in pursuit. The gunmen bowled headlong into the tunnel and disappeared, even as Águila Altísimo threw his mace after them with all his might. Cat Noir ran over to where Dan was stumbling to his feet a few meters from the cave entrance, Pedro in hot pursuit. Águila Altísimo disappeared down the tunnel after the gunmen, only to return moments later and slam his mace into the wall.</p><p>“They disappeared!” he shouted furiously. “By the time I got out of the cave they had vanished! Lupa, do you sense them?”</p><p>Lupa Gris gave him a confused look.</p><p>“They took the Dinosaur Miraculous,” Dan moaned, punching the wall.</p><p>Lupa Gris cursed and shook her head. “The only miraculous I sense other than our own is the Alpaca,” she groaned. “Dan, how could you–?”</p><p>“They ambushed me!” he shouted, a pained look in his eyes. “A bunch of them came out of the tunnel, one yanked the miraculous off my neck before I knew what was happening, and another would have shot me if Águila hadn’t been right there.”</p><p>“But who were they?” Águila Altísimo asked, looking around in confusion.</p><p>Cat Noir walked over to the body of one of the gunmen, a nagging feeling in the back of his mind. “There is no way…” he murmured. He knelt by the body and quickly searched the man’s pockets. His stomach dropped as he found what he was hoping desperately not to find, the last thing he expected to see here, thousands of miles from home. “Ladybug…” he called, holding it up for her to see.</p><p>It was a lynchpin.</p>
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<a name="section0015"><h2>15. Chapter 15</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p class="Preference">Ladybug gasped on seeing the lynchpin Cat Noir held up. How could this Conspiracy have followed them all the way to America? They had thought that Alya was handling it back in Paris; now it turned out that Lynchpin’s tentacles even stretched as far as the United States!</p><p class="Preference">“What is this?” Lupa Gris asked in English, looking from Cat Noir to Ladybug and back again. “What is with the nail?”</p><p class="Preference">“It is a… <em>pivot</em>, a ‘lynchpin,’” Ladybug explained. “It is a… signature. Of a criminal conspiracy we have been fighting against in Paris for months. We did not know his reach extended this far.”</p><p class="Preference">“A criminal conspiracy,” Águila Altísimo deadpanned. “And it may have just stolen two of our miraculous. <em>Perfecto</em>.”</p><p class="Preference">“Our friends have been trying to investigate it and nail it down this week,” Cat Noir added. “We have been out of contact, so they may have found something without telling us.”</p><p class="Preference">“Regardless,” Ladybug went on, eyes alight with passion, “we will hunt down this Lynchpin, and we will take the Dinosaur and Bear Miraculous out of his hands – if Lynchpin has them.”</p><p class="Preference">Lupa Gris looked at Águila Altísimo and nodded. “We will be grateful for your help,” she told them. “After I failed to realize I could help you with Hawk Moth, I think it only fair that I meet you in Paris to help you with this villain. I am familiar with all of our miraculous, so I may be able to locate them quickly. They are our responsibility; we need to clean up this mess.”</p><p class="Preference">“Thank you,” Ladybug replied. “Lynchpin is still our mess – he has been for months – but we will appreciate the help.”</p><p class="Preference">“First, however,” Lupa Gris decided, “I will bring the Alpaca Miraculous back to the Temple. It would not do for another miraculous to become lost in addition to these two. Then I will bring Marco and we will meet you in Paris.”</p><p class="Preference">“Julia,” Águila Altísimo began, “I understand your concern, but I do not wish to spend such a long time apart from the two of you.”</p><p class="Preference">“Mi amor,” Lupa Gris sighed, gesturing toward the valley around them, “I think you will be too busy here.”</p><p class="Preference">He nodded, frowning. “Yes, I suppose you are right as usual. I had thought I should stay nearby. Perhaps I can find Guardian Diego if he is still alive. I can certainly keep an eye on these Dark Acolytes. But this could keep us apart for a long time…”</p><p class="Preference">Ladybug arched an eyebrow at them. “Would it help if you were able to hop through a portal from one side of the world to the other? We have a miraculous to let you do that. Talk to Pegasus and he can open a portal any time you want – within reason, of course.”</p><p class="Preference">“You have that?” Lupa Gris asked, surprised. “The closest we have is the Roadrunner Miraculous, which grants super-speed!”</p><p class="Preference">“While you are doing all that, I guess I need to return John’s body to his reservation,” Dan muttered woodenly. “He was my best friend, and he sacrificed himself to save my life… it’s only fitting.”</p><p class="Preference">“He would appreciate that,” Águila Altísimo assured him, putting a hand on his shoulder.</p><p class="Preference">“And I can think of no one better to guide the tribal elders in the selection of the next Bear Miraculous holder than you,” Lupa Gris added, pulling him into a hug.</p><p class="Preference">“I am sorry that I left while you were down,” Cat Noir said, looking down at Dan’s feet. “If I had stayed, maybe they wouldn’t have stolen your miraculous.”</p><p class="Preference">Dan clapped him on the shoulder. “Kid, what’s done is done. It was my responsibility, and I blew it. Now, I gotta live with the consequences”</p><p class="Preference">“All the same, I will find it if at all possible, and return it to you,” Cat Noir promised.</p><p class="Preference">“If you find whatever lowlife scum jumped me,” Dan told him, eyes flashing with anger, “make sure you kick his ass extra good for me. Maybe knock him all the way across the Atlantic so I can get a crack at ’im!”</p><p class="Preference">“That just leaves two questions to answer,” Ladybug commented, turning to look at Pedro, who still held the Dark Sword of the Mundane in his hands. “You were our enemy at first. Then you were our prisoner. Now? I thank you for helping my partner. And for not using that sword on us. What would you do now?”</p><p class="Preference">Pedro chuckled mirthlessly. “I have nowhere to go,” he told them forlornly. “I can’t return to the Dark Acolytes: I killed an Acolyte, and that is a capital offense. And even if they <em>would</em> accept me back, I don’t think I can go back there. Not knowing their hypocrisy, that the leadership of the Dark Acolytes would use a miraculous for their own purpose, even after teaching us that miraculous are to be shunned. No, I can’t return to them, but I have nowhere else to go. If I might, could I accompany you on your new mission? Two more miraculous are in the wrong hands now – thanks, in part, to the actions of my own people – and I would like to see that situation set right.”</p><p class="Preference">Ladybug glanced over at Cat Noir, who gave her a shrug and a subtle nod: <em>It’s up to you, but it’s fine with me</em>. She nodded. “We would welcome your company,” she told him. <em>Even if Markov is going to be keeping a close eye on you at all times</em>, she added silently. “I think we should use a portal to send the Dark Sword to Paris with us, as well,” she observed. “It may prove useful against Lynchpin and whoever uses his stolen miraculous.”</p><p class="Preference">“Very well,” Lupa Gris agreed. “We can go along with that. <em>If</em> it is not to be destroyed, we can leave it in your very capable hands. Although I hope you will share if we should ever have need of it.”</p><p class="Preference">“Our enemies may have new weapons,” Cat Noir commented, “but now, we have some new friends to help us.”</p><p class="Preference">Ladybug wrapped an arm around his waist and squeezed, adding, “Whatever happens, we will face it together.”</p>
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<a name="section0016"><h2>16. Epilogue</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>There is a one-shot that comes chronologically between Chapter 15 and the Epilogue, but I have an entire story to publish before that one-shot. You don't need to read the story or the one-shot to understand the Epilogue (though they will give some context once they're published.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p class="Preference">Mme Legrand leaned back in her business class seat, kicked off her shoes, and settled in for the eight-hour flight home. The trip had gone fine – as business trips go, there weren’t any major surprises. <em>Well, there was </em>one<em> surprise…</em></p><p class="Preference">That surprise was currently sprawled out across two seats a few rows ahead of her, her head on his shoulder and both already fast asleep from exhaustion.</p><p class="Preference">Lorena had bought her explanation for Marinette and Adrien’s absence readily enough on the day they pulled their disappearing act. The dress design Marinette had whipped up overnight had certainly helped to “seal the deal” for the story that Marinette had been inspired to create a line of Latin American clothing solely based on Lorena’s “encouragement.”</p><p class="Preference">That story had started to wear a little thin after the first day.</p><p class="Preference">When she received the notification that their itinerary had been changed abruptly, with Marinette and Adrien leaving from a different airport (in the middle of nowhere north of Lima) and flying straight to America, Mme Legrand had started to wonder. After all, what on earth could the two rising stars in the world of fashion be doing in <em>Colorado</em> of all places??? The immigration agent had raised an eyebrow at her on entering Panama when he noticed the changes to her party composition, although he had not asked any explicit questions.</p><p class="Preference">She wished the same could be said for their Panama City distributor, who was exceedingly disappointed to miss the opportunity to meet Adrien and especially Marinette. Mme Legrand had of course given him the same cover story as she’d used in Peru, though she could tell he was a bit skeptical.</p><p class="Preference">And then on Saturday Adrien and Marinette had showed up at her hotel room in New York after midnight like nothing had happened… and brought a new “friend” with them. They looked like they had been through hell – their “friend” stood to one side and wrung his hands in agitation as though he was uncomfortable. She doubted any of them had slept well – an impression which was only reinforced when Adrien mentioned that they had arrived an hour earlier – and in Newark! She had opened her mouth to ask about their side trip to Colorado, but shut her mouth dumbly – it wasn’t exactly her business, was it?</p><p class="Preference">Instead, she had asked about sleep, and all three had passed out for the rest of the night. She had planned to let them sleep through the final meeting with the New York distributor and only wake them up when it was time to catch their flight to Paris. However, Marinette had tumbled off the bed and insisted on attending the last meeting, and Adrien had woken up at the crack of dawn anyways. She had no idea how they had done it – lots of coffee, no doubt – but they had survived that meeting. Marinette had even presented a handful of new designs to the New York advertising consultant, who had been duly impressed. No one else had noticed just how far off their game the kids were. They covered it up well, but by now Mme Legrand knew them too well to be fooled.</p><p class="Preference">So here they all were on the plane back to Paris, their new seemingly-mute friend safely ensconced in the seat next to Mme Legrand, and the kids had finally crashed. Marinette had handed her no less than seven sketchbooks in the airport, every page of which she had covered with completely new designs. The first sketchbook she opened held an entire “Spring” line of clothing inspired by Latin America. The coloring and shading was just perfect, down to the last detail. How the girl could manage to design so many pieces in a week – on top of whatever else she’d been doing – would have to remain one of life’s mysteries. For this particular line of clothes, Marinette appeared to have taken inspiration from the local Peruvian animal life.</p><p class="Preference">The next sketchbook she opened was labeled “Summer” and incorporated the plant life and architecture of Lima into the designs. Bold greens and bright colors, with elements reminiscent of traditional Latin American dress worked into the pattern.</p><p class="Preference">Each sketchbook was the same, filled with designs – some inspired by her time in America, some fitting more of a traditional Asian aesthetic, some feeling far more European for the regular “Marinette” line.</p><p class="Preference">Finally, she came to the last sketchbook, the first half of which was filled with abstract pictures: various shapes shaded in brilliant colors. Silver and gold dominated the color palette, though green and tawny brown appeared as well. One worked with the colors of the color wheel exclusively, focusing especially on red and black for some reason. On closer examination, she realized that all the patterns and colorations looked familiar – the tapestries Marinette had commissioned from Agreste, and which Mme Legrand had seen the handful of times she had visited the Mansion since the fall. Perhaps Marinette was designing a new set of tapestries for their Mansion?</p><p class="Preference">Near the end of that book she found a few t-shirt designs which shared a lot of common elements with the newest Heroes of Paris line. However, these shirts depicted entirely different animals and designs – wolf, eagle, raccoon, jaguar, dinosaur… Idly she wondered if Agreste was planning to expand its Heroes line. Or if these shirts represented new heroes. Or where these new heroes even came from. She’d seen a couple of heroes running around New York on her first day there, but none of these designs looked even close to the Majestia logo.</p><p class="Preference">Mme Legrand had to pause on the final page of the sketchbook. The jacket Marinette had designed took her breath away. Clearly this was not inspired by anything in <em>Latin</em> America! The front of the jacket showed a beaded pattern covering both breasts which was clearly of American Indian origin. But on the back she saw a single large brown bear, standing up on its hind legs, front legs spread out and claws fully extended. The bear wore a headband with a single feather and stood protectively in front of a pair of cubs. But what really took her breath away was the expression on the bear’s face: the perfect mix of strength, bravery, and resignation.</p><p class="Preference"><em>What could they have </em>done<em> to inspire these designs?</em></p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Considering that “Latin America” covers the Northern and Southern Hemispheres (where seasons are reversed) as well as the tropics (where there are 2 “seasons”: “Wet Season” and “Dry Season”), I’m making the assumption that they will use the South American calendar for their "fashion seasons" – meaning that “Spring” starts in August/September.</p>
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